The Tale of Simba and Nala
by IanTheShaf
Summary: As cubs, Simba and Nala must overcome the tragedy of their entire family and pride dying at the hands of Scar. As they grow older, they form a new regime, called The Pride, with one purpose: To take back Pride Rock! A Simba/Nala action/romance.
1. The Light at the End of the Tunnel

**Chapter 1: The Light at the End of the Tunnel**

Why? Why now? Why him? He's only a cub. He didn't deserve this. All this... this... whatever it was! It had all happened so fast. He tried as hard as he could to put the pieces together.

"Ok," he thought aloud, "First... everything was fine. Mom and dad were cuddling in the den, so I left... to find Nala. Then... I found her? No! She found me. She ran up to me... and... collapsed!"

Why would she collapse? None of this made any sense!

"Then..." He couldn't remember. He paced back and forth a couple of times, then sat down and stared at a pebble with crossed eyes as he probed the deepest parts of his memory.

"Then..." He looked up at Pride Rock and every terrible detail of the night's occurrences flashed into his head.

Him, running to his parents to tell them of Nala's condition. His father becoming suddenly alarmed and bounding out of the den, past Nala's motionless body. And the reason for his father's sudden dash: the laughter. The horrifying, ear-splitting laughter that escaped from the hyenas' mouths. Him, running to the tip of Pride Rock just in time to see his father and uncle clash, claws extended, jaws wide. Mufasa's easy pinning of Scar. Scar's evil smile. And the same smile plastered all over the hyenas' faces sneaking up from behind. The tremendous thud of Mufasa's back on the dirt under the weight of several hyenas. His last immense roar, a roar that filled the entire Pride Lands with tears. For it wasn't a roar of might and terror. It was a roar of love. A ruler's last cry to his family and his followers. It was the roar that ended his incredible circle of life.

"Noooooo!" Simba burst into tears.

"Get back in the den Simba!" Sarabi ordered her son as she pushed him towards the cave.

"No!"

"Do as your told Simba!" They were both in tears now. There lay the body of their king. Their father. Their husband. He would never hold them again. He would never comfort them. He would never tell them that everything was going to be okay. Everything was not going to be okay, because Mufasa was dead!

Simba escaped his mother's grasp and ran to the top of Pride Rock. To where his father had showed him all the lands he would someday rule. None of that mattered now. How could Simba rule when his father was dead?

He laid down, mentally exhausted, and watched the scene from above. He couldn't look away as the rest of his hell unfolded before him.

Sarabi now devoted herself to only two purposes: protecting her cub and tearing Scar to shreds. She leaped at Scar from above and landed, claws extended, onto his back. She took this opportunity to completely tear his right ear off. Scar screamed in agony. He had never felt pain this excruciating. In a very ungraceful manor, he managed to throw Sarabi from his back and retreat behind his minions.

The hyenas attacked. In one fluid motion, Sarabi thrust her arm out and threw three of them completely off of Pride Rock while she tore a chunk of fur out of another one's side with her teeth. She then brought her focus to the rest of the hyenas. She let out a roar that shook the heavans, but it was cut short as the claw of a hyena cut her across the throat. This hyena had a chunk of hair missing from his right side. The chunk of hair that remained in Sarabi's motionless teeth. Simba would not forget this hyena.

He couldn't take this any longer. He ran down from his viewing spot and down the back of Pride Rock and didn't stop. He just ran. As far as his little feet could take him. Past the waterhole. Past Rafiki's tree. Then he collapsed, and the nightmare ended.

Simba continued to stare at Pride Rock. Tears blurred his vision, so he had to turn away and blink. This couldn't be true. It had to all be a dream. This isn't how everything was supposed to happen. Right now he should be playing with Nala, without a care in the world.

Nala.

She meant so much to him right now. Although he didn't want to admit it, he missed her more than he missed his parents. She was the one that he had told his problems to. She was the one who always listened, and smiled at him and told him not to worry. She was the one that would make him happy when he was sad. She was the one who entertained him when he was bored. She was the one who needed him just as much as he needed her.

Nala.

"Nalaaaaaa!" He knew that this wouldn't achieve anything, but it made him feel good.

"Nalaaaaaa!" He tried again. And again, no reply. It couldn't be true. It just couldn't. He attempted to call out for her one more time, but it sounded more like a moan.

"Nala..."

"Simba!" Simba whirled around and saw what he could later describe as being the most beautiful thing he had ever laid eyes on. It wasn't the amazing sunset that was attempting to hide behind the horizon. It wasn't the picturesque clouds that could not have more perfectly complemented the sun on it's journey downward. It wasn't the endless reaches of Savannah that were to one day belong to him. No. It was the cream colored lioness that stood before him. The lioness that had always been his best friend and had always been at his side when they were in trouble. The lioness that up until this glorious moment he had thought to be dead. Everything was going to be okay.

"Nala!" Simba broke into a wide grin, mimicing the smile on his friend's face. They both ran to each other, and met in the air, which consequently ended in Nala looking down upon the struggling Simba.

Nala, caught up in the moment, proudly remarked, "Pinned Ya'." Simba completely ignored her victory.

"I can't believe you're alive! I saw you fall over. Nala, I thought you were dead, it was terrible." With the change of subject Nala's face grew somber.

"I must of fainted, because I don't remember anything. I just woke up from a bad dream, which I realize now must have been real. Simba... They..." She shed a tear and turned her head away from Simba.

"I know what happened. I saw it all. My parents died."

"No Simba! It's worse! They're all dead!" Simba could now see that she was crying. His face contorted as he tried not to join her. He couldn't cry. Not in front of Nala.

"All of them?"

"Yes! I saw all their bodies! Rafiki! Mufasa! Sarabi! My mo-" She broke into hysterical sobs and dropped to the floor. Simba didn't know what to do. He had never comforted Nala before. She was always so strong. He decided he would sit down next to her, and put his paw on her back. She shivered at the light touch, which seemed to calm her a bit. After awhile she lifted her head up.

"Simba, after I had walked around that... that horrible place, I came looking for you. Because I hadn't found your body. I thought, 'I really hope Simba is out there, because I-'" She turned her head away from him.

"Because you what?" He moved closer to her, and placed his other paw on her hand. Her face lit up, but Simba could not see.

"Because I need him." Out of embarrassment she quickly flopped on her side, facing away from Simba, and scrunched her eyes shut. She shouldn't have said it! Grr, why does she always say stupid things. She really liked Simba, but she knew that Simba thought that girlfriends were gross. How could he feel the same way about her? Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

Simba sat there bewildered. She "needs" him? But Nala was always better than he was. She won every game, every fight, every race. Why would she need a loser like him? Could she like him? No. She always talked about how stupid love was, and how it's a waste of time. But maybe. Just maybe.

He walked around to the other side of his friend and laid down so that they were symmetrical. Simba barely managed a whisper through his nervousness.

"I need you too."

Nala's expression relaxed into a smile. Simba noticed this, and knew that he had done something right. He also smiled.

The two lions fell asleep, both smiling, both forgetting all their problems, both fully occupied with thinking about their companion. After a day filled with grief and hopelessness, there was now a light at the end of the tunnel.


	2. Strawberries

**Chapter 2: Strawberries**

"Scar! You're not in your right mind!"

"Oh, that's where you're wrong Sarafina. You were always wrong! You were wrong to..." The vision blurs.

Sarafina turns to Nala. "Nala, go back to the den, tell Mufasa what's happening."

"No Mom! I wanna fight!"

"NOW!"

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Nala woke up with a start. She was panting and covered in sweat. She looked around and realized that she was just dreaming. Quietly sobbing, she continued to sit there for quite some time, thinking about her dream.

She looked at Pride Rock. Scar wasn't far away. She shivered in fear. Simba, next to her, was fast asleep. Carefully, she snuck into his arms. At this moment in time, she didn't care if Simba noticed. She needed him more than ever. Simba's warmth comforted her, and she eventually fell asleep.

Upon waking, Simba noticed that there was a familiar cub in his arms. This confused him. He didn't remember falling asleep in this position. He quickly dismissed the matter and realized how great the circumstances were. He tried not to move so that Nala would not know that he was awake.

Nala now awoke and remembered that she had placed herself in this wonderful spot. She dared not move. She was really enjoying this.

After several minutes of pretending to sleep, Nala felt an itch in her nose. Oh no! Oh please no! Not now! The itch grew more prominent. Nooooooo! She sneezed. CRAP! She quickly jumped to her feet. "Morning Simba!" Her morning diziness dropped her back onto her side. Simba chuckled.

"Morning Nala." He got to his feet and successfully kept himself up. Both of them were trying to act natural to hide what had just happened, so they unconciously walked in circles. Then came the realization that this didn't look natural at all, so they sat down.

Nala looked towards Simba. "I had a bad dream last night."

Simba frowned. "What was it?" Nala explained her dream to him.

Simba lifted his eyebrow. "I don't get it."

"Neither do I! It was really confusing." They sat motionless, staring into each other's eyes. "I... I think it might have been last night. Ya know, before I fainted."

"Maybe..."

Simba was growing restless from all the seriousness, so he quickly pounced at Nala. Caught off guard, she was flipped onto her back. Instinct took hold and brought Simba's back to the floor.

"Pinned Ya'!" She laughed. "You can never beat me, can you?" Simba growled. He had to think of another game, so he could win.

"Tag! You're it!" Simba struggled and realized that he could not run away from Nala while she was pinning him to the ground. She smiled down at him. Simba rolled his eyes. "Dang it." Nala giggled and stepped off of him. She started walking away, with her head held high and her tail swishing. Simba ran past her.

Nala stopped. "What are you doing?"

Simba looked over his shoulder at the increasingly smaller cub behind him. "Race ya'!"

"Cheater!" Nala smiled and took off.

They ran for awhile before Nala fell, motionless.

Simba whipped around. "Nala!" He ran back to her. "Nala, are you okay? Nala!" She quickly bounced back up and darted off. Simba growled and ran after her.

Nala saw a small outcropping of trees and made it her destination. Simba had almost caught up to her when she hit the first tree she saw with her paw. "I win!"

Simba skidded to a halt. "Who said you could decide where the finish line was?"

"Uhhh. Me."

"But I made up the game!"

"But I'm the lioness."

"But I'm the future king!"

"Of what?"

She had gone too far. Simba sat and looked down at his paws. "Oh." Nala realized what her words meant, "I'm so sorry Simba! I didn't mean it that way."

"It's ok," he mumbled.

Nala put her paw under his chin and brought his eyes to hers. "Hey, I'm really sorry."

Simba managed a smile and nuzzled her under her chin. "Oh, Nala. I'm so glad you're still alive."

Nala blushed. "Me too."

They looked into each other's eyes. Simba didn't know what to do, so he decided to change the mood. "We're gonna need to find somewhere safe to stay, and this jungle looks like a great place to start looking."

"Yeah, I agree. Let's walk."

The two lions traveled side by side in search of shelter. They took in their beautiful surroundings with wide eyes.

"Wow. It's so pretty here," Nala whispered as she looked at all the different colors of the plants.

"Yeah I guess," Simba replied bluntly. "Look at how tall the trees are!"

"Woah! I can't believe I'm seeing this. Look how the sun is shining through them!"

Simba laughed. "We really found a great place didn't we?"

"You mean, I found a great place."

He smiled, and decided it was best not to argue. Nala would win anyway. "I've got an idea. Let's split up. Then we'll meet right back here when the sun starts to go down, and tell each other about all the great places we found. Then we can decide where we want to stay."

"Sounds great!"

With a goodbye tackle, Nala walked proudly away from Simba.

"I let her win. Yeah, that's right. She's not better than me." Simba walked in the other direction as he mumbled to himself.

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Things had changed between them. Simba didn't quite understand what it all meant. Nala had been nicer to him lately, and she was laughing more, even though her family had just been killed! Then again, he felt pretty good too. It seemed that just maybe, Nala wanted to be more than just friends. It had been the first time he had ever sensed that from her. Whatever. He'd worry about it later. He had to find shelter.

Nala stopped dead in her tracks. Woah! Could he? Nooooooo. He doesn't like me. I'm just a stupid girl. I'm no princess or anything. She looked into the pool of water next to her. Wow! I guess I am pretty attractive. She looked to her right, and saw a strawberry bush. Simba likes strawberries! She ran through the bush, and the scent of the strawberries clung to her fur.

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Nala arrived back at the meeting place first. She took the time to groom herself for the arrival of Simba, who she hoped had found something good because she had found nothing.

"Nala! You won't believe the!... Nala. You look... amazing." Simba's mouth hung open.

Nala scratched a circle into the dirt with a claw and giggled. "Thanks."

"I uhh... found this awesome place." He coughed and collected himself. "I think you'll like it."

"Really?" She brought her face close to his in excitement. "What's it like?"

"It's uhh... You'll see when we get there. C'mon." Simba nodded in the direction of his finding and Nala walked next to him.

Simba couldn't stop looking at Nala. He would quickly move his head towards her every few seconds to take it all in. Nala looked at him. "What are you doing?"

"I'm just making sure you're still there."

"Hah! Sure." She walked ahead of him.

"You don't know where you're going Nala."

"Well I wouldn't want you hurting your neck making sure I haven't poofed away, now would I?"

Simba darted ahead of her. "Hey!" Nala ran after him.

Together, they sprinted through the unknown darkness, barely dodging trees and hurtling logs. Nala ran straight into something furry and rolled down a hill. "Why'd you stop? Idiot!"

Simba laughed out loud. "Cause we're here!"

Nala looked around, and for a second, thought she was dreaming. Everything she looked at glowed and lit up the area an incandescent blue. Vines hung down from the walls, and a shallow river flowed right under their paws. At the mouth of the river was a misty waterfall. "Oh, Simba. It looks..." She tried to think of a word that fit the beauty of the place, but there was none.

"Just like your eyes." Simba finished her sentence. She looked at him with half parted lips and puppy dog eyes as if to say "Awww," but she was speechless. He looked at her eyes, and then at the waterfall, and by the time he looked back, she was sitting next to him with the same expression on her face as she swished her tail back and forth. Simba smiled. She closed her eyes and placed her head under his chin, then nuzzled him up to his cheek. He returned the favor to her cheek.

"Simba, I wish we could stay like this forever."

"But you haven't seen the coolest part yet." They disconnected and Simba walked over to the waterfall. He turned his neck to look at her and flashed her a quick smile. He then leaped through the waterfall, and disappeared into nothingness. Nala gasped.

"No way..." She quickly bounded through the waterfall and fell next to Simba, who nudged her up with his nose.

"Welcome home."

Inside the waterfall was a cave, and it was incredible. Blue crystals lined the walls and lit up the room with the same light as outside. The floor was lined with sand, with a little patch of grass that looked like a makeshift bed.

All that came out of Nala's mouth was a whisper, "Oh Simba..."

"Just when I thought it couldn't get any more awesome, I found this." When he heard no response from Nala, he looked around at her. She was crying. "Nala! Do you not like it? We can find some other place."

"No Simba. It's beautiful. I'm so happy!" In a mix of emotions, she threw herself at Simba and kissed him. For the length of the kiss, both cubs were filled with complete exstacy. The only thing that mattered was the lion that was sealed to their lips. Nothing else. Not Pride Rock, or Scar, or hyenas, or their families, or what their partner looked or smelled like. Their souls intertwined. And that was all that mattered.

Nala lifted her head up and giggled. "Pinned Ya'."

Simba stared in disbelief at her. "I... Wow... That..." He closed his eyes, laid his head back, and opened his mouth into a huge grin. Nala settled down next to him, and he hugged her into his body.

"No Nala. I wish we could stay like THIS forever."


	3. The Chase

**Chapter 3: The Chase**

The two lions that had once lived a normal life, now slept in silence. After the previous night, no nightmares could penetrate their bubble of happiness. Unfortunately, sneezes could.

"AAACHOO!"

Nala chastised her stupid nose before realizing that she was talking to her nose. So she stopped. She stared at the wall and thought about how happy she was to be Simba's girlfriend. All those years of jealousy, over.

Being attracted to the Prince wasn't always easy. All the girl cubs were always talking about him. Sometimes he would smile at them. That made her want to punch something. But he was her's now, so she'd never have to worry about that again.

She turned her body carefully so she wouldn't wake Simba. She smiled in the dark. Then kissed him. She felt his lips curl into a smile. A purr erupted from inside her and she couldn't control it. It rumbled throughout the cave. The sound dissapeared and Simba's breathing dominated her ears again. She snuggled up under his chin and slowly fell back into a peaceful slumber, hopefully not interupted by her nose this time.

Simba's mind slowly transitioned from his dream world to the real world. He felt something under his head. Nala! He mentally slapped himself into reality. Memories of last night streamed into his head.

Had it really happened? Had Nala really kissed him? Of course it happened. He wasn't crazy, and the fact that Nala was under his head, moving his head up and down as she breathed, made it pretty obvious. He ran his fingers through her fur. Once again, a purr forced its way out, and woke her up.

Simba smiled down at her as she opened her eyes. "I've never noticed how pretty your eyes are." She blushed, then looked back up into his eyes. She saw herself in the reflection, and noticed how happy she looked.

She smiled. "Simba, do I look happy?"

"You look happier than I've ever seen you before." He returned her joyful expression. "And you smell like strawberries."

"You like strawberries right?" She didn't need to ask, she knew all his favorite foods.

"Of course I do!" His eyes flashed open wide and his mouth hung open as the strawberries reminded him of something important. Food! "Nala... We didn't eat anything yesterday..."

"Oh my god you're right! I completely forgot about food!"

Both their stomachs rumbled at the same time.

Simba rose to his feet and looked at Nala with a worried expression. "We don't know how to hunt. How are we gonna get food?"

Nala stayed on the floor. "I... I don't know..." She looked hopefully up at Simba. "But we gotta try."

"Come on. You can show me where those strawberries are." And with that, they set off in search for food.

Nala led the way to the strawberry patch. Simba's mouth had been watering the whole way there because of Nala's aroma. As they ambled on in search for the fruit, they once again took in their amazing surroundings.

"This place is just too beautiful Simba. It all feels too good to be true." She waited for a moment for a response. Growing impatient, she looked back and noticed that Simba was almost completely brain dead. She stopped in her tracks, and Simba crashed into her.

"Ah! Sorry!"

Nala just laughed at him and ran.

Simba muttered to himself, "Not this time Nala. Not this time..." He then took off after her as he thought of how good those strawberries were going to taste.

As Nala arrived at the patch she noticed that Simba was way behind her, so she hid behind a tree and waited. Simba came rushing towards the tree that she was behind. Right as he twisted his body to dodge the pillar of wood, Nala jumped out and tackled him.

"Pinned Ya'."

Simba was stunned. Here he was, being pinned by the lioness that he dreamed about, and all around him were the strawberries that he also dreamed about.

"Simba?"

He snapped back into reality. "Uhh yeah?"

"I pinned you, and you're not doing anything about it. Are you okay?"

"Nala... I'm surrounded by strawberries, and a beautiful lioness is straddling me. And you're asking me if I'm ok?"

"Hahaha! You're so cute." She nuzzled Simba, who returned the affection, and she slowly removed herself from his body. Simba jumped up and started filling himself up with strawberries, and Nala followed.

Once Nala had eaten as much as she could handle, and Simba had eaten much more than he could handle, they sat back to back and sighed. "I really needed that," Simba said.

"Yeah. Me too." Nala searched for Simba's paw and grabbed it with hers. Simba jumped at the gesture before he realized what was happening. He smiled and returned the squeeze.

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

The couple sat in silence for quite some time until Simba's breathing became more prominent. Nala removed her paw and laid him down. Simba seemed happy with strawberries, but she needed meat. She looked down at him, and decided that he'd probably be sleeping for awhile, so she snuck away and searched for some more sustaining eats.

She came upon an open area in the jungle where a doe was grazing. How perfect! This would be her first kill! The trees covered her as she snuck around to the other side. Her mother had taught her some hunting techniques. After all, a lioness needed to know how to hunt. Once she had arrived at where she wanted to be, she lowered her body to the ground and began to sneak up on the unsuspecting doe. She had this. Oh, she totally had this. This doe had no chance. No chance at all. It was gonna be her dinner.

WHAM! Nala went flying and landed on her face. She felt a sharp pain coming from the side of her head, and a headache began to develope. She grunted and looked up. Through blurry eyes, she saw a buck staring at her from the spot where she was a second ago. His eyes were blazing and his foot was stomping furiously. No doubt he was the doe's mate.

The buck charged her again and she screamed, but this time she saw it coming. Just in time, she dodged out of the way of the huge antlers, which found a different a target, the tree. The buck struggled as it furiously tried to remove itself.

Nala was starting to gain her sight again, and she struggled onto all fours. She was about to flee when the buck ripped it's antlers, and some bark, from the tree and turned to face her again. She sat there, immobilized by fear. The buck pawed the floor twice, then charged. Just as she thought she was going to die, a lion cub came flying out of the bushes and tackled the buck. It wasn't expecting this at all, and laid sprawled out on the floor as Simba picked Nala up and shifted her onto his back. Struggling, he sprinted away from the open area. The buck regained it's footing, and the chase began.

Simba leaped over logs and dodged bushes just as he had when he played with Nala, but the buck was well conditioned as well, and bigger. The gap between the predator and the prey lessened more and more. Simba knew he couldn't keep this up much longer. He had to think of something. He remembered from his travels the previous day that there was a river nearby. It was his only chance.

Simba took a sharp turn to the left and continued running. The buck followed in suit. Simba started to hear the water rushing up ahead. He felt a scratch on his back leg. It was right behind him. Right before the buck snatched Nala from his back, Simba leaped as far as he could over the river. He underestimated the width of the river, and came crashing into the rapids, and went under.

He looked wildy around underwater for something he could reach. He noticed a branch sticking out from the side of the wall and grabbed it. Pulling himself out of the water, he began to breath again. He laid on his back, exhausted.

Then he heard a scream. Nala! He ran down the bank of the river and found her struggling to find something to grab onto as the rapids pulled her farther and farther away from her companion. At least she was managing to stay afloat.

"Grab onto this!" Simba held out a branch for her, but she slipped and floated on. Simba noticed something weird. As he kept running, the rushing of the water got louder. He kept up with Nala as she continuously tried to grab onto the branch. Then Simba realized what that sound was. A waterfall. He abondoned the branch, and in a loss of all hope, he jumped into the water in front of Nala. After touching the bottom of the river with his paws, he leaped back up with all his force straight into Nala's chest. The force of Simba's jump brought both him and Nala to the bank of the river. Simba used the last of his strength to pull himself and Nala, who has holding on by his neck, out of the water.

For a long time, the cubs laid there and caught their breath.

Simba was the first to speak. "That... Was... Awesome!"

Nala burst out into laughter as Simba acted out the whole event play-by-play. After he exausted himself again, he laid down next to Nala. Amazed by the bravery of her rescuer, she threw her arms around him, and licked his entire face. Overwhelmed by affection, Simba didn't move. He just smiled and enjoyed the licking.

Nala praised his heroism between licks. "Oh my god! You were amazing! You were so brave! You ran so fast! You attacked that buck! You! You! You carried me the whole time! And you!" She stopped licking and and looked at Simba with sparkling eyes. "Saved me." She collapsed into Simba with a hug and didn't move. Simba returned the hug, and they were both very much content with lying there for awhile.

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Simba woke up to the sound of rushing water and darkness. "Crap. We fell asleep out here."

He tried comprehending what had happened earlier, but it seemed so impossible and so surreal, that he decided to think about it later. For the third time that day, he carried Nala on his back, and returned home by instinct.

He laid her down on some grass and looked at her as she sleeped. She was so beautiful. Saving her was so worth it. He chuckled to himself. "I guess I am pretty amazing," he thought aloud.

"Yeah, you are."

"What? Were you awake this whole time?"

Nala kept her eyes closed, smiled, and nodded. "Sorry, I just like it when you carry me."

He chuckled again. "Well I'm tired. I'm gonna sleep whether you are or not."

"And I'm cold."

Simba smiled. He looked at her closed eyes and beat up body, and settled down next to her. Then he hugged her into his torso, and let his dreams take him away to a place that was no where near as good as the place he was in right now.


	4. Sweet Dreams

**Chapter 4: Sweet Dreams**

"Scar! You're not in your right mind!"

"Oh, that's where you're wrong Sarafina. You were always wrong! You were wrong to leave! You were wrong to make a fool out of me!"

"Scar! You ignorant bastard! I... I had to!" Tears streamed down Sarafina's face.

The vision blurs.

Sarafina turns to Nala.

"Nala, go back to the den, tell Mufasa what's happening."

"No Mom! I wanna fight!"

"NOW!"

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Nala smashed through the waterfall and lay face first into the ground as tears poured from her eyes and soaked the ground around her. She curled into a ball and choked as she tried to restrain her display of emotion. She was utterly alone in her misery.

Her mother! Her own mother! How could she be taken away? Nala didn't even know how she had died, and that was the worst part of it! Her head shook and her body trembled as her emotions changed. She struck the ground with her paw.

It's not fair!

The young cub had no reason to get up, so she kept still for awhile, and eventually calmed down. She looked around with her eyes as she lay there, and was reminded of how beautiful this place was. It impressed her even in her emotional state.

The strength to pick herself up finally arose and she slowly walked over to the stream.

Sitting down, she looking up into the sky and whispered, "Mother. What do I do now?" She waited patiently for a response she knew would never come. As more questions filled her mind, she spoke them to the void.

"Now that everyones gone, I don't know what's important. I feel so helpless mom. -sniffle- I can't do this on my own."

With fresh tears she gazed upon the blurry waterfall behind her, knowing what lay behind it.

Simba.

The very cub that had saved her life the day before. Her eternal friend, through it all. She looked back up into the sky smiling.

"Simba."

Her tail swished as she said his name.

"Ya know mom, I think I know what I need to do. I need to do all I can for Simba. I owe everything to him. Whenever I'm with him, I feel like I can do anything. You were right... Love is the best feeling in the world, and I'd give anything to let Simba feel love too. I promise I'll make you proud."

Her speech ended but she continued to look up at the stars as they reflected in her sapphire eyes. Her eyes fell upon one very bright star. She noticed another star right next it, and just a little farther off, a star just as bright stood motionless in the black sky. Nala's mouth hung open as she related these stars to Mufasa, Sarabi, and her mother. "Could it be?"

Nala's thoughts were interupted by the sound of the waterfall parting as something moved through it. Her whole body relaxed at the familiar sound and she was filled with warmth. She pretended not to notice Simba as he sat down next to her.

"I got cold."

Nala shifted her gaze to his eyes as he watched the stars glimmer. Simba was expecting a reply so he looked down at her, noticed her red eyes, and compassion filled his voice.

"Nala! Were you crying?"

"Oh, I just had a bad dream."

Simba licked her nose and gently pushed her onto the ground. He settled down next to her so that they were face to face. Simba pulled his companion closer to him to comfort her. As their bodies became one mass, Nala burst into tears and held onto Simba with every ounce of her strength. They both laid there for the rest of the night. Simba licked the top of Nala's furry head until they were both asleep.

Two cubs, very alone, but always together.

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

The sun rose over the jungle and filtered through the canopy. The only members of the Pride lay once again in a full embrace as their eyelids slowly opened. The warmth of the sun put them in a very happy mood, so that they had almost forgotten the happenings of the previous night.

Nala brought her head up to meet Simba's eyes. She giggled. "Hmm. Hi there."

Simba smiled. "Hello."

Nala looked around then back at Simba and happily sighed. "Looks like another beautiful day in the jungle."

"Yeah! What a shame."

Nala smiled for the millionth time and kissed Simba on the nose. Simba smiled so wide that he accidentally let forth a chuckle. Nala laid her head on Simba's chest so that she could hear his heart beat. The longer they held onto each other, the faster Simba's heart beat became. Nala smiled as she realized that she was causing this. Then Simba's whole body stiffened as he realized that Nala could hear his heart beat. His efforts to control it made it beat as fast as it could.

Just as Nala began to giggle, Simba's stomach rumbled.

"Eh, I'm hungry, guess it's cause all we ate yesterday was strawberries, heh! I need meat!"

"Mmmm yessss!" Nala's mouth watered.

"Uhh, Nala?"

"Yes, Simba?"

"You're drooling!"

"Ack!" Nala sucked up the drool with a loud slurping noise, then realized that that was probably even less flattering than the drool itself, and looked at her feet in embarrassment.

"Hahaha! You're so cute!" Simba nuzzled her then took two steps before he remembered what had happened yesterday. "Oh right... We can't hunt..."

"Uggh, you're right! I forgot... Then how are we gonna get meat, Simba?"

"I guess we'll have to scavenge..."

Nala closed her eyes as she rejected Simba's idea. "But we don't know where any lions live! How are we gonna... Simba?" She looked up and saw the back of her boyfriend get smaller and smaller as his tail whipped back and forth. "Cheater!"

Once again, the cubs ran, their favorite past-time. Nala, being the more athletically gifted of the two slowly began to catch up to Simba. When they were even, Nala asked him why he just took off?

"You'll see... when... we get there," he said between breaths, "But as for now..." He whipped Nala with his tail and she stumbled over in surprise. She quickly rose back to her feet, but she was now a great distance behind Simba. Her sweat blurred her vision so that she couldn't see Simba anymore, but she couldn't let him win! So she just kept running. Then, completely unexpectedly, Nala was tackled from her side and into the inside of a hollow tree trunk.

"Simba what the-"

"Shhh!"

Nala looked at him in confusion, then heard the noise that had caused Simba to throw her into a log. Hyena voices!

"Heh heh heh! Did you see the look on her face? It was like!" The hyena made his face into an expression of hurt.

"Hahahahaha! Yeah!"

"Wait! I smell something!"

Simba and Nala clasped paws in terror. Simba could feel Nala's paws trembling uncontrollably. He had to protect her. He would do whatever he could to protect her, and he was about to fight this hyena.

The hyena sniffed and then continued. "I think it's lion."

"No you idiot. I just burped! And it's giraffe. I guess you've got a broken brain and a broken nose!"

"Shut up!"

The two hyenas fought each other and rolled down the hill.

Simba and Nala waited until the voices could no longer be heard before coming out of the log.

Nala was still shaking. "Oh my god!"

Simba smiled. "That was so scary!"

"But look at us! We're fine!"

"Hahaha! I know!"

They laughed until they were calm again and Nala asked, "Why are we at Pride Rock?"

"Cause, Nala, this is where all the food is!"

Nala's smile turned into a huge grin as she realized Simba's plan.

The two cubs silently set out for their destination, the food pile. It was where anything and everything that was hunted that day was thrown, to be stored until dinner. Simba and Nala's mouths were watering as they thought of all the gazelle, antelope, zebra, giraffe, and hippo. They were sensible enough to keep an eye out for hyenas, now that they apparently could roam wherever they wanted.

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

They arrived at the food pile, and it was glorious. Although, not as glorious as it used to be when the lions ruled. Hyenas were obviously less worthy hunters. Nevertheless, just the smell of the meat brought smiles to their faces. They both stopped dead in their tracks when they noticed a hyena watching over the food pile.

Simba whispered into Nala's ear, "Well it looks like this will be more difficult than I thought." Nala nodded. They slowly made their way behind a rock undetected. Out of nowhere Nala saw a pebble fly and hit the hyena in the face. Very unintelligently, he turned around, the exact opposite direction that the pebble came from, to a hyena walking towards him.

"You think you're funny? Throwin rocks at me?"

The second hyena responded with a voice that sounded much more educated than any hyena they had ever heard. "I didn't throw any rocks at you Talca. You're imaging things again. You see? This is why you watch the food pile!" They exchanged dirty looks at each other. "Anyway! I came to tell you that King Scar has ordered that half as much food shall be eaten for dinner, since we are running low."

"Cause our hunters suck!"

"What would you know Talca? You couldn't even handle one gazelle! You're a failure!"

And with that the bigger of the two hyenas turned around and started walking away when Simba noticed something familiar on the side of this hyena. A patch of open skin with no hair. This was the hyena that killed his mother!

He threw another pebble at Sarabi's killer out of rage. The hyena whipped around and showed his glaring face. He stared down Talca with blood shot eyes as he talked through his teeth.

"Did you REALLY just throw a rock at me?

"What? No!"

Talca was attacked by the bigger hyena, and Simba and Nala took their chance to grab some food.

They happily trotted out of view of the hyenas with a slab of meat in their mouths.

"Woohoo!"

"Yes! Meat!"

"Oshay, lesh geh bah oh a cashe.

Nala raised an eyebrow at Simba. "Huh?"

Simba spat out his meat. "Let's get back to the cave."

"Oooh okay!"

As usual, the lions enjoyed their run back to their cave, with Nala, of course, winning.

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Water exploded everywhere as they jumped through the waterfall together. Nala instantly sat down and tore at the meat with her teeth. Simba settled down across from her just one foot away. They ate until they had their fill, and they rested their heads on their paws as they looked into each other's eyes.

Nala broke the silence. "So... When did you start liking me?"

Simba smiled. "Hmm... So long ago." Nala smiled. "Lemme think. Oh! Remember when I pushed you into the waterhole and you pulled me in?"

"Yeah!" Nala's face lit up.

"Yeah, we didn't know how to swim so we held onto each other and swam as hard as we could to the shore. And then we came out, and you collapsed on me! Haha! I went crazy! I couldn't stop thinking about you!"

"Haha, yeah that was funny, and I collapsed on you on purpose by the way."

"Huh, I was totally convinced it was an accident." They both smiled. "K your turn."

"Mine was way before yours, and I really remember it. It was the first time we met." Nala's eyes began to water, and Simba couldn't restrain his own tears. "I had just fallen in the mud and I had to walk back to my mom. All the cubs saw me on my way back and made fun of me. I looked terrible. But then... Then you... You just..." Nala couldn't finish her sentence so Simba grabbed her paw and finished it for her.

"I stood up for you, and told everyone else to leave you alone, then I told you how to roll in the dirt to get it all off."

Nala looked up at Simba through blurry eyes and whispered, "It meant so much to me. You were my only friend."

Simba scooted closer to her and grabbed both her paws and kissed them. Then he moved his head closer to hers and licked up her tears. Once he had dried her eyes, he licked her mouth then kissed her. Their tails swished in unison and their ears stood up as both lions were transported into a different world. One in which they were playing together in plain view of their parents, and everything was perfect. They did everything together. Simba even promised Nala that he would secretly come with her on her first hunt, one day. They would never forget their lives before the attack.

After a considerably long time, their lips parted and they laid their heads next to each other, and Simba's head was in Nala's arms, and Nala's head was in Simba's arms. And their eyelids remained closed from the kiss, and they dwelled on the fact that no other lion could have their lion.

"Sweet dreams."

"Sweet dreams."


	5. The Bird

**Chapter 5: The Bird**

By now, Simba and Nala had gotten used to waking up and pretending to be asleep so that they could enjoy the presence of their friend so close to themselves. As for today, their bodies weren't so close, but their heads were. As Simba awoke, he licked Nala's neck. Obviously still asleep, Nala purred and rolled over onto her side. Simba smiled and laughed to himself knowing that Nala was probably dreaming about being licked on the neck, hopefully by himself. His hopes were confirmed when he heard Nala whisper, "Simba..."

He whispered into her ear, "Yeah Nal'?" The only response he got was another purr. Simba started nipping her ear and her purring became louder as her paws moved about. Simba then moved around so that he could face her, and licked her once on the nose. Her smile widened. He moved to whisper into her ear again, but one of his paws slipped and he hit Nala on the top of her head with his chin. Nala quickly jumped up, and hit his chin with the top of her head. Simba just laughed at her.

"What's so funny?" Nala demanded as she rubbed her head with her paw trying to soothe her new headache.

"Oh, nothing... You were just talking in your sleep, so I whispered in your ear, and you smacked my head." Simba smiled. "It was all really cute."

"Ack! What did I say?"

"What, you got something to hide?"

"No, I just wanna make sure it wasn't embarrassing!"

"Oh, it was embarrassing alright. Terribly embarrassing."

Nala's face drooped and she looked at her paws. "What was it?"

Simba frowned. There were things she didn't want him to know? He wanted her to be able to tell him anything. He resumed his sarcastic attitude. "Oh, nothing important."

"Simba!" She now looked at him with a hurt expression, disappointed that he wouldn't tell her right away.

Simba gave in. "Okay, Okay! You were just talking about being afraid of the dark."

"Oh..." She looked down at her paws again, and her cheeks turned bright red.

Simba jumped in surprise. "Nala, I was just making something up. You didn't say anything embarrassing."

Nala slowly looked up at Simba. "I didn't?"

"No... Are you really afraid of the dark?"

Nala looked back down at her paws and slowly nodded. Simba sat down next to Nala and licked the back of her ear. "But we always went out in the dark to play. Were you afraid then?" Nala nodded. It then dawned on him that she always asked him to go with her when she needed to go out in the dark by saying something like, "Cmon! It'll be boring without you."

"But it was okay, cause you were there, so I wasn't scared anymore."

Simba put his paw on Nala's and she smiled at him. "Well anytime you need a brave lion to escort you through the night, I'll be right here."

Nala looked lovingly at Simba and nuzzled him. He nuzzled her back then led the way out into the world.

TRANSITIION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

The two cubs decided that their mission today was to get more meat, and maybe some extra for the next day. The played their usual game of tag to make the trip to Pride Rock more interesting. Now that they had learned from experience, they slowed down as they neared Pride Rock and walked stealthily towards the meat pile.

Talca, the hyena that was patrolling the meat pile the day before, was still there. Simba and Nala hid behind the rock where they had hid yesterday, and plotted a way to get the meat. Throwing rocks obviously wouldn't work, with Talca being the only hyena there. Simba offered to be a distraction while Nala grabbed some meat, but Nala disapproved, saying it was too dangerous. Their thought process was broken when they saw a familiar looking bird swoop down from the sky and stick his talons in Talca's eyes. Talca screamed as the bird grabbed some meat from the pile and dragged it away on the floor because it was too heavy to carry while flying. The lion cubs took their chance and stole some meat. As they escaped they snatched up the bird, who sat on Simba's back, completely speechless.

Once the trio had made it to safety, they stopped, and loud noises ensued. None of them could understand each other as they all threw out questions, so they all stopped talking simultaneously. In the silence, Simba yelled out, "Zazu!"

"Young master Simba! And little Nala! I thought you had died!"

Nala gaped at Zazu excitedly. "We thought YOU were dead!"

Simba chimed in. "I can't believe this! It's so great to see you Zaz!"

The three Pridelanders continued to talk in this manner for awhile before anything of importance was discussed. "So how much about Pride Rock do you two know?" Zazu asked.

"All we know is that there's a lot of hyenas, and Scar is king now."

"Hmph. He's no king to me! No sah! Maybe to those stupid hyenas, but something must be done. I've been watching them for a few days and I know a fair amount about how they live."

Zazu explained how the Hyenas rose as the sun did, and half of them went hunting while the other half stayed back to do Scar's bidding, or relax. Around the time that the sun was at the top of the sky, they would have their first meal, then the second hunting party would depart. As the sun set they would have their second meal, then the fighting began. All the hyenas would gather in a circle and watch as two hyenas would battle it out in the middle. The winner would get the best meat, and the loser would retreat back to the den to lick his wounds. Once the winner had been honored by his kin long enough, all the hyenas would enter the den, to play fight the girl hyenas (That's what he told Simba and Nala). Eventually the hyenas would fall asleep and wait for the next day.

"And Scar just sits in his cave all day and play fights with the girl hyenas. Oh, and I forgot to mention that there are a few hyenas assigned to patrol the Pridelands. And Talca, who we all met earlier, watches the food pile."

"Wow, that's a lot more orderly than I thought it would be!"

"Scar was Mufasa's brother. He had a great king to follow the example of, but he has bad intentions."

Nala closed her eyes in distaste. "I hate them being in our home..."

"Yes. And the worst part... is that they took all the dead lions... And use them to sleep on in the den..."

"No..." The cubs stood motionless in disbelief, and closed their eyes.

"It's truly terrible... I'm sorry to have to tell you... But I need your help."

"With what?" Simba asked somberly, still depressed from Zazu's report.

"I need you both to help me take back Pride Rock!"

Both the lions eyes opened. "What? Are you out of your mind? Theres like thirty hyenas in there-"

"forty-six"

"Forty-six hyenas! Who could all easily kill us!"

"If we slowly get rid of them one by one, it's possible."

"We can't just kill em!"

"You're right! We'll just have to use our brains a bit."

Simba and Nala looked at each other and shrugged. "All right. We want Pride Rock back just as much you do. Tell us what to do."

"I'm uncomfortable being this close to them... I suggest we get farther away your highness, then I'll tell you my plan."

Simba was surprised to hear himself referred to as "Your highness", but he definitely liked it. With a renewed sense of purpose he declared, "We should go back home."

Nala looked excitedly at Zazu. "Yeah! Simba found this amazing place! Cmon!"

And with that they sped off towards the cave, Simba and Nala by foot, and Zazu by air.

TRANSITIION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

When they had arrived, Zazu took in his surroundings as the cubs smiled, remembering when they first saw it. "This is incredible! You just found this?"

"Yep!" Simba said proudly as Nala looked up at him with shining eyes. As Zazu neared the waterfall, Simba came up behind him and smacked him through it with his paw.

"Aaaaagh!" The bird hit the floor and looked around again. "Oh wow! It's even better in here! Haha!" Simba and Nala walked through the waterfall to join Zazu in the cave. "I am officially impressed master Simba.

Simba bowed. "Thank you." Nala giggled. Zazu eyed her suspiciously then brought up more serious matters.

"All right, now that were here, let's discuss these Pride Rock matters over food." They all began to thoroughly enjoy their meal as Zazu spoke. "So. I don't have a full fledged plan because I wasn't expecting you two to be part of it, but the main attack is to their food source. We will secretly go on their hunts and scare away all prey so that they can never catch any food."

"Sounds simple enough," commented Simba.

"Yes, but new problems will arise as they become more desperate. But at least we know where to start!"

Simba and Nala grunted approval through their meat.

The two cubs related to Zazu what had happened to them since the attack, and asked him how he had survived it.

"Well Mufasa told me to get help, and I flew to every neighboring pride, but they had other matters they had to attend to. Then I came back... And well, you know... Well I think we ought to get some sleep. Busy day tomorrow, ruining the hyena's meals. I prefer sleeping in trees so I'll be outside if you need me." And he flew away.

Simba and Nala smiled at each other, glad that they could be alone at night. Nala rubbed up against Simba's side and walked back around to face him. "So, what did I really say this morning?"

"Well it went a little something like this..." Simba walked up to Nala and brought his head next to hers to lick her neck.

"Ahh Simba..."

"Yeah, that's what you said!" He laughed then began to nip her ears, and she purred loudly then jumped away from him and put her butt in the air, ready to pounce on her prey. Simba, completely unsuspecting, was tackled and pinned onto his back.

"Pinned ya!" She giggled.

"Aggh not again!"

"Aww sowwy," said Nala with a mock sad face.

Then she began licking his face from above and he laughed. Then he kissed her from below and they were taken into the past again. To a day when Nala tried to teach Simba how to flip his opponent back over after he had been tackled, but failed. The kiss ended, and Nala found herself lying on Simba's stomach, once again listening to his heat beat. She purred. And Simba put her to sleep by running his paw up and down her back. Nala's body went limp and Simba kissed the top of her head, then looked up, to where the stars were behind the roof of the cave, and mouthed the words, "Thank you."


	6. A Roar

**Chapter 6: A Roar**

Nala thankfully didn't have any nightmares during the night. She just dreamt about Simba. Simba in the past, and Simba in the future. Everything revolved around Simba now. He was all she could think about. She told herself that she didn't understand what love was, but this sure felt like love. It was as much as love as it could be.

Thump, Thump. Thump, Thump.

Nala realized that she was once again listening to Simba's heart. By the slowness of the beat, she could tell that he was still asleep. "Hmm." She expressed her happiness through a purr, and shifted herself into a more comfortable position on top of him.

Simba felt the lioness move around on top of him. He wasn't quite sure what was happening because he was still waking up. Through his grogginess he concluded that the body on him was probably Nala because he had seen a lot of her lately, and she likes him, right? Then life slapped him in the face. Oh, yeah. It's Nala. Duh. Cause she's his girlfriend, who could... Hear his heartbeat! As hard as he tried, he could not control his heart as it picked up speed. Nala will notice!

Nala picked up on the fact that Simba's heart was beating faster, and concluded that he was awake. She reasoned that there was no reason for them to be pretending to be asleep anymore, so she voiced her thoughts.

"Simba. There's no need to pretend to be asleep. I'm not gonna run away cause I know that your awake silly."

He opened his eyes and agreed. "Yeah you're right. No need to worry." He smiled. "Good morning."

"Good morning Simba."

"So no bad dreams last night?"

She proudly smiled. "None at all!"

"Yay!" He squeezed her to show that he really cared about her distress. "Let's hope they never come back."

"Well I don't know Simba... I think my nightmares might show me what happened to my mother." She paused for a bit. "I guess I'll just have to wait to find out."

"And when you DO find out, wake me up. I wanna be there for you."

"Aww Simba." She nuzzled him beneath his chin.

"I don't know why Nala, but I love it when you say my name. It just makes-"

"Simba."

The prince forgot what he was going to say, and just smiled at Nala as her voice took it's affect on him.

"Simba Simba Simba." She stared into his eyes with her paws under her chin supporting her head on his chest.

"Nala Nala Nala."

She purred, then Simba whispered, "Nal'," and butterflies filled her stomach. He had never called her a pet name before so she never knew how amazing it was to be called Nal'. There was only one lion who could ever call her that.

Simba.

The lion cubs emerged from the waterfall smiling and nuzzling each other. Zazu swooped down from his tree and they ceased their affection.

"Good morning master Simba! Good morning young Nala!"

"Mornin Zaz."

"Well it looks like a fine day to chase some antelope, don't you agree?"

"Oh yeah! I'm so ready to ruin these hyena's dinners!" Nala exclaimed jumping around.

"Haha yeah Nal'!"

Zazu looked at Simba with a raised eyebrow. Simba cut short Zazu's suspicions by saying, "Lead the way Zaz!"

"Right! Follow me from below."

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

The closer they came to Pride Rock, the more uncomfortable they became. Sadly, Pride Rock was no longer a safe haven or a home. The hyenas had destroyed it, and the surrounding lands. The Pridelands had seen better days.

Being a female, Nala had been taught how to hunt, to some extent. Luckily, all they needed to accomplish was the easy part, scaring the prey away. Zazu, the invaluable source of information, led the cubs to the first stop on the Hyena's hunt, the waterhole.

During the reign of Mufasa, the waterhole was a safe place for other animals to drink. Now that Scar was king, they had learned that hanging around there was a very bad idea.

Upon arriving, they only noticed one antelope drinking from the water. Zazu had fully expected there to be no animals remotely near Pride Rock. He figured this must either be one dedicated antelope, or an outsider.

"This is very odd. Be careful you two. I have a bad feeling about this." Simba nodded in understanding, then turned to Nala and whispered, "Good luck Nal'. Show me what you can do."

Nala smiled at him and mouthed, "I love you."

Simba raised his eyebrow in confusion then mouthed, "What?"

"Nevermind."

Nala took one step out from behind their cover towards the unsuspecting antelope when a horrifying bark split the air.

They were too late.

The antelope looked up, then darted off in the opposite direction from which it heard the noise.

"Follow it," Zazu commanded.

They trailed the fleeing antelope and they noticed that the bark had come from the hyena that was chasing it. Just as the hyena was inches away from the antelope's heel, six more antelopes came out from behind the surrounding trees and formed a perimeter around the hyena. It looked around, clearly outnumbered, and tried to slow itself down. The antelopes formed a barrier behind the hyena as more of them poured out from behind the trees. Zazu and the cubs watched in interest as a seemingly intelligent plan unfolded before their eyes.

"Break off!" yelled the biggest of the antelopes. The prey, which had had now become the predator, split off from the hyena. Just as the trio thought that the plan had failed, whatever it was, the hyena disappeared.

"Stop!" Zazu yelled, and the cubs skidded to a halt, ten feet from the cliffside that the hyena had disappeared over. They looked at each other in bewilderment. Zazu flew down to the ground and the three of them stood motionless.

Simba turned around and saw the antelopes approaching them from behind. "Uhh... guys?"

Zazu and Nala turned around and a "yeep!" escaped Nala's mouth.

The three companions stood dumbfounded watching the antelopes. Slowly, they all came to halt, and even more slowly, bowed to the king. It registered in Simba's mind that they were bowing to him, and he jumped up in surprise as his mouth hung open. Nala turned her head towards Simba and looked into his eyes, as her own welled up in tears. Zazu simply looked proudly upon Mufasa's son, the true king.

Still bowing low, the leader of the antelopes addressed Simba. "King Simba. It is a great surprise that you are still alive. All the animals in the Pridelands believed you to be dead. I'm sure I'm speaking for everyone when I say that we are ecstatic at your arrival."

"I... Uhh... Thank you." Simba awkwardly stood on three legs with his paw hovering slightly in the air. The antelope raised his head, as the rest followed suit, and approached Simba.

"Still young I see." The antelope smiled. "I am Tareesh, leader of the antelopes. We would like to speak with you in a more... comfortable setting."

Simba looked around and realized that they were ten feet away from death, and that he looked incredibly awkward. He cleared his throat, straightened up, and answered the antelope. "Right. This is unsafe." He deepened his voice and tried to sound intelligent. "Where shall we discuss these matters?"

"Follow me," responded the antelope. Nala opened her mouth to speak and Tareesh silenced her. "More hyenas will come, you can introduce yourself at our dwelling."

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Antelopes gathered around a fire at the middle of a clearing of trees, called the pit. Once the rustling of hooves became silence, Tareesh spoke. "Today's attempt at taking back the Pridelands was a success, thanks to Farlan's bravery." There was a stomping of hooves as Farlan was congratulated. "Yes, today was a great day, but on our hunt, there was a turn of events which made today a day that will be remembered forever." Whispering ensued.

"An unexpected guest... King Simba!" Every antelope in attendance gasped simultaneously. Simba revealed himself as he stepped out from behind some trees. The antelopes went crazy. They jumped and stomped their feet as they yelled out things such as, "The king has returned!", "Finally!", and "All hail King Simba!"

They eventually settled down and Simba stood tall and proud, as tall and proud as he could, and addressed his subjects from the center of the circle. "Everyone." This was the most dignified word he could think of for the assembly present, and it was all he had prepared. "Uhh. Thank you for coming." That was good, that was good. Now he needed to address the problem. "Ok, it would seem that the hyenas have taken over Pride Rock." A murmur of disapproval towards the hyenas rose from the audience, and Simba lost his train of thought. His shoulders dropped and he gave up.

"Ok look. I'm no king. My father was a king, I'm just a cub. I know nothing about how to rule a kingdom. And I need help." Some antelopes nodded their heads in agreement, to show him that they wanted to help. "Pride Rock needs us, so we're gonna take it back!" This brought numerous grunts from the audience and some "Yeahs!" and one antelope even stomped his feet. "Scar thinks he can just take our home and do whatever he wants with it. We're gonna show him that we don't give up that easily! That we can fight back!" More shouting ensued. "That even though they have killed our king, we can kill theirs! And every hyena!"

By now every antelope was stomping it's feet and shouting menacing threats. Simba was incredibly impressed with how well he had handled this, and he smiled as wide as he could. He looked over to Nala, who was beaming through teary eyes, and their gaze held.

In this moment, he realized how unimportant all of this was compared to her. He didn't care that he had every antelope in the Pridelands chanting his name, only that she was smiling and staring into his eyes. She was his Nala, and she was beautiful.

He straightened up and turned his gaze to the group of loud war-crazed animals and opened his mouth. He had no idea what he was doing. He just opened his mouth, and pushed as much air as he could through his throat, and when he was done, every animal in attendance was dead silent. He looked around and tried to find the reason for this sudden change in mood, but found none. He just found every antelope with eyes wide, begin to slowly bow down to him. He had to be dreaming.

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Simba was directly against Nala's side across from Tareesh. The antelope leader was looking straight at him, expectantly.

"Simba?"

"Uhh what?" Apparently, he had completely forgotten everything that had happened since the speech.

"When did Pride Rock fall to Scar?"

"Oh. Let's see..." He thought about the past few days.

The first day had been spent in tears, until he met Nala. The next day was when they searched for shelter. The third day, they searched for food. They returned to Pride Rock on the fourth day. Then found Zazu on the fifth day. And today would have to be the sixth. "Well it's been five days since the night of the attack."

"Interesting. We only found out three days ago, when hyenas had killed three of our own. They must have had been preparing for the first hunt."

"It's most likely that they were fighting for positions in the hierarchy for the first few days." Simba jumped as Zazu spoke. He had been on Nala's back the whole time.

Tareesh took a mouthful of grass and frowned. "So primitive... We can only guess what happens daily in that cave..." Simba, Nala, and Zazu looked downward in agreement. Tareesh swallowed and continued. "Well, for now we must continue to dwindle their population. We cannot defeat Scar with just brains. We must wait until you two have grown." He paused so that anyone could offer up objections. He only received faces of disapproval as Simba and Nala attempted to swallow their grass.

Tareesh chuckled. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to learn to not eat meat while you're with us. The animals of the Pridelands have lost faith in the circle of life. Eating them wouldn't be good for morale."

Nala smiled and replied, "I think we can handle it." Simba smiled down at her and kissed her. Then he whispered in her ear, "I can eat anything, as long as I have you to snuggle with after." She nuzzled him under his chin and licked his cheek, then settled into a comfortable position in the protection of his warmth. Zazu grunted as if to say, "I knew it," Then flew off to a tree to spend the night. Tareesh bowed to Simba one last time and left to find his wife.

Simba looked up into the sky, and at his father. He thanked him, as he did daily, for all the good things that had been happening. Then he looked around at the community of antelopes spread out among the plains around small fires. He finally understood what it was like to be a king. Then he looked down at Nala. And to be in love.


	7. The First Battle

**Chapter 7: The First Battle**

The reliable sun rose over another beautiful day in the Pridelands. It had risen many times since Simba and Nala had first joined the antelopes. Not much is to be said about the time that transpired. More and more animals joined what was now called "The Pride". This name was introduced by their king, Simba, during a speech in which he emphasized the fact that they were no longer just animals in the Pridelands, but animals in his pride. This name was widely accepted by the animals, for it gave them a sense of, well, pride. They were no longer fighting for survival, but for the right to rule the Pridelands, and to take care of their pride.

Nala was at the age now when she would be on her first hunt, had Scar not killed the ones who would have taught her. Not that it mattered. Out of necessity she had become an incredible huntress. A huntress of hyena. Simba was at the age when he would be finishing his kingly training and would choose a queen. The queen didn't have to be his mate, but as for his relationship with Nala, the decision would have been fairly easy. Although, Nala had been considered the queen of The Pride for quite some time now. It's only natural that rules will change out of necessity, and because of this, the duties of adulthood had been pushed upon them at a very young age.

Although the sun and all of the Pridelands were beautiful, the overall mood of the meeting in progress, would be described as far from that.

"Decrease their population my ass! You know what they do with their free time! It's only natural that new hyenas are poppin up everywhere! We can't compete anymore! As their forces multiply through the roof, ours stay the same... You already know what we want. We want action! And until that decree is made, I shall make no further comment."

Known for their excellent ability to strategize, it was only proper that a giraffe would be the head of the army. Not to mention the effect that a long neck had on the ability to see all that's happening on the battlefield. In this case, this giraffe's name was Chunin, and he was great at what he did.

Simba sighed, "Yes, I understand. But you know we aren't ready... If only we could find a pride willing to help."

"That doesn't seem to be happening does it? All of the searches have returned with no good news. We must strike now before they birth another couple hundred pups."

As of recently, these meetings didn't seem to change much. Simba, being afraid of change and overall very stubborn, just wanted to wait until his father placed something in his lap.

Simba looked desperately over to Nala, who communicated through her eyes the decision that he knew he had to make.

"Look, I never wanted to actually go to war with these bastards. I don't want any of us to die," he sighed again, "but we've been left with no choice."

Chunin's whole body relaxed as his approach to the situation had finally been accepted. Everyone else in attendance also relaxed a bit. A decision had finally been made, and things were going to happen. It had been so dreary and sad as they continued completing the tasks that they had been given since the beginning. Change would be very welcome.

"And now we have much to plan. Take some time to relax. We've been at this for way too long. Be back here tomorrow when the sun rises, as always."

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

The rest of the day was committed to resting. There would be no hyena raids, and it was decided that the gathering of fruit could be forgotten for one day. All the animals gathered with their families, and slowly the younger ones split off to go join each other in games. And as was one of their favorite hobbies, Simba and Nala watched them.

"Look familiar?" Nala pointed to a hippo who had been tackled to the floor by his friend.

"No, I have no idea what you're talking about." Simba raised his head in obvious exaggeration and smiled as Nala rolled her eyes. She shifted herself so that she could lay her head on Simba's side. She looked up into his eyes, as they followed the children playing, and reminisced, "Don't you miss those days? Running around, doing whatever we want. No responsibilities. No worries."

"I always do. Hakuna Matata."

"Hakuna Ma-Whata?"

"Just something Rafiki taught me," he said, still watching the hippos, "It means 'no worries'."

A long silence followed, which was broken by another one of Simba's sighs, which he had become very fond of doing. "We act so old Nal'." Her body shook as he said her pet name. "But we're still so young." He brought his eyes to her, to meet her gaze.

"Heh. Yeah. Kinda sucks," she admitted, "But ya know? Someday a mother is going to say to her cub, who wants a bedtime story, 'Well I've got a really good one for you tonight. It's called The Tale of Simba and Nala." Simba laughed as she continued, "It's a story about how two lions saved the Pridelands from an evil lion named Scar. And Simba, the valiant king, killed Scar and made everyone happy."

Simba kissed her forehead. "Heh. It might just end up as a love story."

Nala's eyes sparkled as they teared up. "Oh, Simba." She nuzzled him up his body, past his neck then licked his cheek a couple of times. "I wish."

Simba's face became more serious and he sincerely looked into her eyes. "We've been so busy lately. I almost forgot how beautiful you are."

Nala closed her eyes and she placed her forehead against Simba's. "Let's go on a date. Somewhere romantic."

Their moment was cut short by a scream, and then the trumpet of an elephant's trunk. They both turned in alarm and Simba began yelling out orders.

"Hide the children! Carry the sick! Army assemble!" Simba's booming voice was followed by many other important voices issuing his commands, and screams. The possibilities of what could be happening ran through Simba's mind. And the only plausible explanation was that the hyenas had found them. Simba cursed to himself and began searching for Chunin.

Tareesh had organized as many of the animals as he could, and ordered them to run to their second hideout, a much less comfortable place, called The Cave. So called because it was a very long cave, which was easily defended from the entrance.

Simba had found Chunin, who had rounded up the majority of his forces. Simba approached him as he was yelling orders at his troops who were defending against what looked like thirty hyenas.

"Chunin! What's the situation?"

"It would seem that a hunting party has stumbled upon us on accident. We have them surrounded. Luckily, we have numbers on our side this time. But as always, they have teeth. We must make sure none of them get away, so that they don't give news of our location to Scar."

Simba nodded and jumped into the fray. Hyenas weren't the only carnivores in the Pridelands.

Simba landed on two hyenas and broke their legs. He jumped at the hyena to his left and slashed him across the face. The hyena whimpered and bit Simba's leg. The muscle protected him and he threw the hyena off. Two more hyenas came at Simba from his sides. He jumped backwards and let them ram into each other. He took this opportunity to kill one, then the other slashed him down his back and left a huge, bloody gash, and he roared in agony. Simba's face was attacked as he collapsed under the weight of another hyena. Before thinking about how this little moment could decide everything, the hyena was ripped off his back, accompanied by a roar. Simba rose and bit a hyena that was about to mount his savior.

"You get the one with dark eyes while I take care of this one."

The two lions fought back to back until every hyena was dead on the floor. Chunin's troops yelled in victory. Simba and Nala collapsed next to each other, and smiled as they looked upon the face of the lion that they had been through it all with.

Since the majority of The Pride had migrated to The Cave, Simba decided that everyone would sleep there tonight, then return to their home in the morning, for their secret was still safe.

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Nala looked unhappily up at Simba, with her chin on the cave floor, as his wounds were being tended to.

"Nala, I'm fine. Please dont worry."

"Don't worry? Simba! How can you expect me not to worry? That gash is so big!" Her tail swished back and forth in anxiety. "NO! Don't move! Your back will-"

"Look." He stretched his back out and jumped straight up, then landed back on the cave floor. He hid a grimace of pain behind his smile. "Aren't these antelopes great? They really know their stuff."

"Simbaaaa. You could have died! You need to be more careful." She rubbed up against his side and brought her head next to his.

"Well Nal'. When you're king, sometimes ya gotta take chances."

"But next time, PLEASE tell me before you go off and do something stupid like that."

"Nal'. it wasn't-" He cut himself off. It wasn't worth it to argue. She would win anyway. "Well thank you so much for saving me." He licked her on the nose and nuzzled her, reassuring her that he'd never do that again. "And ya have to admit. That was pretty fun."

"Yeah haha, good teamwork." They both laughed.

Simba looked around at all the happy animals (thanks to the fact that no Pridelander died in the fight), and remembered what Nala had suggested earlier. "Hey! What about that date?" His tail swished excitedly as he asked the question.

She gasped. "I totally forgot! Yeah, it looks like everyone can take care of themselves for a bit."

And so the two lions left The Cave after telling Tareesh that they would be absent for some time. In the moonlight, Nala asked, "So where should we go?"

"I've got something in mind. But it's a secret."

Nala smiled and continued to walk next to her lover. Along the way they talked about the children and who they thought liked who, and they gossiped about the leaders (the animals who sat at the meetings with Simba and Nala everyday). Nala slowly became aware of where they were headed but continued to act naïve.

"I hope it's some place romantic."

"Oh, don't worry, it's romantic.

"Is it meaningful?"

"Yeah, I guess you could say it's pretty meaningful."

"Is there lots of blue crystals?"

Simba eyed her suspiciously. "You knew the whole time didn't you?"

Nala just smiled.

"It's been so many years, and I still can't tell when you're lying."

Nala laughed at him then pushed him with her paw. He retaliated with a slightly harder push. Then she crouched and tackled him to the floor. "Pinned Ya'!"

Simba laughed harder then he had in awhile. "Ya know what? I'm not even gonna try. Cause I know it won't work."

Nala frowned. "Aww. Then it's no fun."

Simba tried to wriggle out from under her paws, and finally got one paw free, and pushed her off. When she looked back up, laughing, he was gone. She ran after him and when she was only a few feet behind him, he stopped dead in his tracks, and they rolled down the hill together into their paradise.

Lying on each other, they looked around at the place that they had forgotten so long ago. In the feeling of the moment, Simba kissed Nala and she didn't budge. It had been forever since they had kissed, and it just seemed like the perfect thing to do. Without realizing it, during the length of their kiss they had fully embraced each other, and on the moment of the release, Nala giggled at the feeling that she hadn't felt in way too long. Simba laughed along with her. "I forgot how amazing that was." He paused. "Nal'."

She purred at the sound of her name and she brought her mouth to his ear and whispered, "Simba." He nuzzled her up her neck and she buried herself in his mane. "Cmon Nal'. Let's go inside."

While leaning on each others sides, they walked through the waterfall and into the cave that brought back so many good memories. Nala purred. They laid down on the bed that Simba had laid out when he had found the place. They listened to the waterfall for a time, then Simba broke the silence.

"I love you Nala. I love you so much." He looked into her beautiful sapphire eyes and licked her nose, "And I love everything about you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

Nala's eyes teared up and she let out a noise he had never heard before. It was sort of a cross between a giddy scream and a hiccup. He would find out later that that was exactly what it was.

"Nala. Will you be my mate?"

Nala clung onto Simba as tight as she could as she yelled, "Yes! Yes! Yes! Of course I will!" Then she loosened her grip and they were face to face. She whispered, "Of course I will." They both bent their heads forward and their foreheads touched. They closed their eyes.

"I need you Simba."

"I need you too."

*hiccup*


	8. Finally, One

**Chapter 8: Finally, One**

As hard as the two lovers tried, they could not rid Nala of her hiccups! Simba even tried the most classic approach.

"Ok, now get upside-down against the wall." Nala did as she was told. Simba filled his cupped paws with water from the waterfall and brought it to her. "Now drink this." Nala awkwardly tried to lick the water up, upside-down. Simba chuckled and slowly poured the water into her mouth as best as he could.

"Hiccup!"

"ROOOAR!" Simba roared at Nala unexpectedly, hoping to scare her. She just jumped and collapsed.

"Hiccup!"

They both frowned.

These crazy antics continued for about a half an hour until Simba found a spot on Nala's belly that caused her to purr throughout her entire body, and thankfully, got rid of her hiccups.

Silence ensued. "Yes!" They both excitedly jumped at each other and hugged.

"Oh my god... That was terrible..."

"I'll bet." Simba replied, smiling. They were both very relieved, and, unfortunately, very awake.

They released each other and stood back up, looking into each other's eyes. Simba laughed, "Well... We can finally sleep now."

"Are you kidding? I'm so awake now!"

"Yeah, me too..."

Nala slowly walked over to her future mate and rubbed against his left side, then flicked his tail over her head, and continued around his right side before nuzzling his mane and whispering into his ear, "Well you just proposed to me."

Simba smiled. "Yeah huh. Guess I did."

Nala sat down and frowned. "But I was thinking... I don't think they'll let us get married. I mean, we're not even adults yet, and we have a kingdom to worry about."

"Crap. You're right..." Simba also sat down and frowned, then laid down as he thought about the situation. Nala rolled him over and laid her paws against his chest, and her head against her paws, and closed her eyes.

After about a minute, Simba lifted his head up. "Ya know what? Thats not gonna stop us! Some stupid rules aren't gonna take our happiness away from us." He jumped up and Nala rolled off of his belly onto her back. Simba put his face right into hers. "Let's get married right now!" His mouth was in a huge grin and he obviously felt that he had come up with the best idea in the world.

Nala's face lit up as the intensity of his earlier offer finally sunk in. "Yes! That's an amazing idea! And we can do everything that would be in a marriage! One of us could be Rafiki and! And!"

"Ok! Let's do it!" Simba quickly bounded out of the cave in excitement. He was getting married!

Nala stood still, face beaming, waiting for her Simba to emerge from the curtain of water. She thought to herself. She's actually getting married. And to Simba! Her whole life had led up to this moment. So what if Pride Rock had fallen to Scar, so what if her family had died, so what if they were going to be organizing an attack on the enemy soon. Her Simba would be her mate soon, and they would live forever in each others arms. They would be one.

Nala was expecting a splash as Simba burst through the waterfall, but instead he slowly walked through it, his fur getting damp in the process. Nala gave him a smile depicting the happiness she felt at that moment, and Simba returned it with an even bigger smile. Eventually, Simba arrived across from Nala, and they both visualized themselves at the tip of Pride Rock, with hundreds of animals waiting patiently.

Simba quickly moved over to where Rafiki would have been during a normal marriage. He cleared his throat. "We are gathered here today." Nala giggled. "To witness the marriage of two lions. The best king to have ever lived, and an extremely attractive queen." He smiled at Nala as she continued to giggle. "Now Nal', ahem, Nala, do you promise to be a good mate, yet still govern your kingdom with utmost attention?"

"I do."

"And Simba, do you promise to do whatever she says?"

She giggled again as he whipped back into position across from her and grabbed her paws. "I do." Simba stayed in his spot for a little while so that they could continue to state into each others eyes, the love almost becoming visible as it channeled between then. After an appropriate amount of time he returned to Rafiki's spot. "Then I now pronounce you, mates."

Out of excitement, Simba didn't even move back to his spot, but instead brought his muzzle to Nala's and kissed her like he'd never kissed her before. They released and both just stared at each other with huge smiles as they were in a state of complete bliss. Tears of happiness trickled down from Nala's eyes and Simba licked them up, then pushed her over and intensely nuzzled her as she nuzzled him. Simba licked Nala's ear, and that did it. Not too much later, another lion had entered The Pride.

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

The following morning, the sun rose upon two lions. The same sun also rose upon one family. Simba looked up at Nala, and noticed that her eyes had been open for quite some time.

"Morning sleepy head." She said through a smile.

"Morning Nal'" He plunked his head back onto the floor and closed his eyes. Then it dawned on him.

He's married!

He opened his eyes and licked his mate's nose. She in turn licked his nose. Then they're tongues met on their second lick. They smiled and Nala positioned herself on top of Simba again.

"Last night was incredible." She sighed, looking lovingly into his deep pools of amber.

"Yeah, it was." He slowly nodded his head. "And we got rid of your hiccups."

Nala laughed. "I just cant believe we're married!"

"Yeah, wow! And we thought we would never get married when we were cubs."

"Except for when I dreamed about it."

Simba opened his mouth into a wide grin. "Yeah."

Nala listened to Simba's heart beat for a whole minute before she spoke up again. "We won't be able to tell anyone."

"I think it'll be fun! Keeping it a secret, ya know?"

"Yeah probably, haha."

"Guess we'll have to see."

Another gap of silence followed Simba's words, as the two lions took in all that had happened. Once Nala felt it was time to go, she rose from Simba's chest and stretched. Simba followed suite. They passed through the waterfall and said one last goodbye to their favorite place in all of the Pridelands before headig towards The Cave. They leaned against each other the whole way there. This only made them more sweaty. They didn't care. They just wanted to feel the presence of their mate.

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Simba was expecting to see a nice orderly gathering of animals outside of The Cave, ready to march back to their home. Instead, he found utter chaos, and Tareesh ran up to meet Simba. Panting he addressed the king. "Sire! We have just been informed by Zazu that there were some survivors in the attack, and they reported back to Scar. Our secret is no longer safe."

"No!" Simba smashed his foot into the ground angrily as Nala comforted him by nuzzling his side. "This changes everything... we must go to war."

"It would seem that way."

"Tell some messengers to search all of the Pridelands for animals who can help us. We're gonna need all the help we can get if we want to win this."

Tareesh bounded off towards Chunin, and Nala looked worriedly at Simba. Simba looked down into the sand. "I knew this day would come, but I had hoped it would come when I'm a bit older..."

"Oh Simba..." She licked his cheek. "You're fully capable of doing this. You're wise beyond your years. I believe in you. And I'll help you in any way I can."

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

For the remainder of the morning, Nala was stuck to Simba like glue, just following him around and comforting him as he issued kingly orders. She was incredibly worried about his confidence at this time. He always worried about the day he'd have to go to war with Scar, and now that it was here, she knew why because she felt just as stressed out as he did, being the queen. All of these animal's lives were now in their hands. One bad move could kill at least one of them, and it would be completely her fault. So she decided it would best just to comfort Simba so that they could experience this hardship as one lion, with the support of two. She laughed inwardly as she realized how perfectly this idea reflected marriage.

Once the messengers had been sent out, and the troops rallied, The Pride took their first step towards Pride Rock, and to their judgement. Not one of the animals was confident or optimistic about the battle. The odds were quite obviously against them.

Simba looked back at all the forlorn faces, and reasoned that they needed to be motivated before the battle. It's never a good idea to go into battle with no expectation of living through it. Simba prepared his speech, and whispered to Nala as she helped him come up with ideas.

They had reached the waterhole. As this familiar landmark came into view, more and more animals became nervous. Many offered prayers up to Ahadi, and many others visibly shook as they thought of the grim outcome. Simba cleared his throat.

"My friends." Simba paused as he looked around at all the frowning faces. "We have come a long way. To think we came from almost nothing. But then we grew. We expanded. We reached out to every animal in all of the Pridelands. Why did we do this?" Simba paused but didn't expect an answer. He continued, according to plan. "Because we knew that one day, this day would come. All of you came to The Pride so that you could one day take back what belongs to you, and your children." Many animals nodded their heads at the mention of their children's wellbeing. "Why did they take the Pridelands?" He pointed towards Pride Rock. "Because they wanted to? Because they wanted to spread their filth across our lands?" He paused. "Perhaps. We don't know for sure. What we do know for sure is that they didn't take Pride Rock for their children, for the Pridelands, or for the Circle of Life. With their actions, they have disrupted the natural flow of everything. And its up to us, to correct this flow, to save the Pridelands!" Cheering erupted from the crowd, but Simba didn't stop there. "They killed your families! They killed your friends! Why? So that they could feed themselves? No! Have you seen their food pile? That things LOADED with food! They kill us... For FUN!" Angry shouts and stomping of feet emerged from the animals and faces of anger replaced those of sorrow. "They steal our food, they steal our water, they go out of their way to intentionally screw us! Do they think they can do whatever they want! To The Pride?" The crowd was now filled with constant cheering. "We will take back what's rightfully ours! And we will do it for the Circle of Life, and for the ones we love!" He looked at Nala as he said the last part and smiled to her. She licked his cheek, and he roared.

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

"Mufasa?" Scar jumped at the sound of a mighty roar, which resembled Mufasa's exactly. "No, it can't be." He heard the roar again. "It must be Simba! Karkass! Get ready for attack!"

"Yes your Majesty."

"This should be easy..."

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

The Pride has assembled into an organized formation. Simba had given the command to Chunin, since this was his area of expertise. They marched onwards to Pride Rock, and stopped at a safe distance. The hyenas had assembled at the base of Pride Rock, and Scar stood at the end of the rock. A dead silence hung over the battlefield.

Every animal tightened up in anticipation. The hyenas began howling, and the flap of wings was heard coming towards The Pride. Zazu landed in front of Simba, Nala, Tareesh, and Chunin. "What information have you gathered recently, Zazu?"

"Well sire, it would seem the hyena with the fur missing that you have such an interest in is their military leader. His name is Karkass." Simba growled. "And he's somewhat of a genius when it comes to warfare."

Simba motioned towards Chunin. "Well we have a genius of our own. We have nothing to worry about."

"I have gathered no other information Master Simba."

"Please continue to be our intel. Tell us whenever you know something of value."

"Yes sir." And he flew off towards Pride Rock.

Simba focused his attention on his mate, Tareesh, and Chunin. "Well you guys know the plan. We'll all take our respective troops and kill some hyenas. Remember to hit a hole into the left, Tareesh, so Chunin can follow in."

"Of course Your Highness."

Nala looked to Simba. "Simba. Could I stay with you? It wouldn't affect our plans too much."

Simba turned his attention to Chunin. "Chunin?"

"Yes, that should be fine. It might actually help. Just combine both of your troops."

Nala smiled and nuzzled Simba before returning to her troops. The other three broke up and took their places.

Simba looked for Zazu and found a speck in the sky. He thought, "Heh heh, I'm actually starting to like him." This brought memories of him and Nala pulling pranks on the little blue bird. He smiled then looked to where Scar was standing.

In Mufasa's spot.

Simba growled and stared into Scar's eyes which Simba could feel burning into his own. A light breeze ruffled their fur and put everyone on edge. Simba looked left, then to the right, then back at Scar. Then he concentrated every ounce of hatred into a roar. A roar that sounded the beginning of the battle for Pride Rock.


	9. The Eye of the Storm

**Chapter 9: The Eye of the Storm**

Screams, yells, squawks, bleats, barks, trumpets, and three roars split the air. Zazu watched from above as two masses magnetized to each other. One side, desiring what they had in the past, and the other, crazed by pure insanity, charged towards their judgement. Nala kept pace with Simba as they led The Pride. Scar merely watched from above, his focus on Simba, who collided with the first hyena.

Blood pumping, Simba stood over the three hyenas he had just trampled and watched as Nala flew straight over about ten of them. Entranced by her surprising bound, Simba was laid down by one burly looking hyena, who was instantly blown far away by the approaching Pridelanders. Antelopes streamed past Simba's view as he watched the sky. What the hell was he doing, lying there? He rose and called out his lovers name, loud and clear.

"Nalaaaaaa!"

A tan lioness thudded as she hit the ground next to him. Simba smiled at her, "As always, you never fail to impress me."

Nala closed her mouth and beamed. "Thanks! But we need to stick together Sim'"

"Definately! And Sim' doesn't really work, sorry."

"You're right." Nala's expression relaxed into seriousness as she looked over the still swarming herds. "Cmon. It's hunting time."

The two lovers ran past antelopes, and elephants, and ostriches, and rhinos. SMASH! Three more hyenas died at the paw of Nala.

"Damn!" Simba thought, "That is MY mate!" Simba caught a hyena in his mouth as he clawed at the surrounding vermin. He spun his body around and knocked out several Hyena's with the one spinning from his mouth. Two more sped towards his face and he spat his weapon at one of them. The other jumped onto Simba's back, but was flipped back onto the horn of a rhino as Simba kicked. "How Convenient."

Nala looked over to Simba just in time to see the hyena on his back. She side-stepped out of the way of an approaching enemy and jumped over to Simba, who turned out to be fine. As the rhinos behind them became occupied with the punctured hyena, Simba and Nala became surrounded.

"Nala! Cover my back!" The two lions fought back to back, consistently dealing a circle of death to Scar's horde.

Meanwhile, Chunin was waiting for Tareesh to clear a hole in the left side of Scar's troops. He eyed Simba and Nala's attempts to cut them off at the front, so they could not circle back on Chunin's troops and destroy them from behind. He whistled for Zazu. "Bird."

"Yes commander?"

"Tell Simba and Nala that it was a bad idea to send them in like that. They will surely die. They must retreat!"

"Yes commander!" and he flew off.

"Stupid bird..."

Tareesh sent the rhinos in first, gouging the side of the hyenas. Then he sent the elephants to line the sides of the hole that was made, to keep the hyenas from spilling into it. The hole continued to invade into the hyena's formation. Tareesh quickly made his way to Chunin, to deliver the good news.

"Chun-"

"I can see..."

"Heh. And they say this hyena of theirs is a military genius."

"Don't speak to soon Tareesh."

The elderly antelope smiled. "You know I always do."

Chunin chuckled. "Yes, you've always been an optimist."

"I think I'm gonna sit this one out, my bones can't handle this stuff anymore."

"Hah! That's what happens when you worry too much! I feel as spry as a newborn!"

"Then why don't you take the lead in there. I know you can."

"I'd be honored, my friend."

The two touched foreheads, and Chunin yelled his mightiest war cry, then charged into the hole, followed by his troops.

The rhinos made way for Chunin, and his troops, as he knocked down five hyenas with one sweep of his mighty neck. The dent became much larger at a much faster rate. Chunin was nearing the middle of the army, and adrenaline filled his veins as he destroyed many more hyenas, dumbfounding every animal who saw his stunning strength. Never had they seen a giraffe with such aggression.

Chunin stopped and poked his head up. He thought he had heard Tareesh. He looked over to his friend and saw him jumping up and down, pointing to his left. Chunin's mouth dropped as horror unveiled before him. From behind Pride Rock, hundreds of hyenas poured out, towards the fray.

"RETREAT!" The word felt weird in his throat, for he had never said it before. His troops pulled back as fast as they could, but it was too late. The hyenas capped the hole, and he was now surrounded by a sea of hyenas.

Karkass had done it. He was defeated. The mighty Chunin, bested by a lowly hyena...

He looked around at his troops, who were looking to him with nothing but pure fear in their eyes. He was at a loss of words. It was his fault they were all about to die. But it wasn't like him to feel this way. He straightened his neck, looked around at the wall of elephants keeping the hyenas out of their peace circle, cleared his throat, and did what he did best.

"Animals of the Pridelands. We are The Pride. We didn't come here to be defeated. We didn't come here to lose our lives. We came here to take back the throne, to put sanity back in charge of our home, our families. We came here to kill these hyenas. And in the name of Ahadi, we god damn will! We will fight until we cannot fight any more! We will fight until every ounce of our blood has been shed, so that whenever future generations see the red stain on the ground, they can be reminded of what we did for them!" He was now screaming every word. One elephant toppled over as another filled it's spot. "We are The Pride! And we will fight for what is rightfully ours!"

"YAAAAH!" Every animal in the eye of the storm let every emotion escape their body in this war cry of understanding. All but one emotion... Anger. Pure anger filled the hearts of the Pridelanders. They turned to face the elephants, as more fell.

A hole broke in the elephant barrier. "Now let's take it back!" They charged to the hole and destroyed the flow of hyenas. More elephants fell. More hyenas came. Chunin turned around and killed two hyenas with his hooves. More encircled him, and he fought like a crazed ant, trying to escape. But escape wasn't his motivation. His motivation was pulled from somewhere deep inside. Somewhere he didn't understand. "Die you bastards!" His comrades fell in front of his eyes. More black fur entered his vision as his troops disappeared. Every hyena that approached him was left with the everlasting image of his screaming face, right before their life was taken from them. But even the mighty Chunin wasn't invincible. His tail was ripped off, and then his leg was broken. He bent over but did not stop kicking and throwing his neck around. He was bleeding from every spot possible, and was running off of pure adrenaline.

Encased by a curtain of black, the giraffe slowly became engulfed by the frenzy of hyenas. As the yelping of hyenas slowly dissipated, so did the life of Chunin.

Tareesh watched as his life long friend slowly disappeared. He stood motionless, having no idea what to do. He heard nothing as all his senses became numb. He faintly heard Simba's call to retreat, and blindly turned his body and ran, away from hell.

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Simba slowly walked through the most depressing thing he had ever seen. In this bleak cave, there was only sorrow, as Pridelanders wept for their loved ones that died in the chaos. Many who did not have to experience this loss, tried to console others by telling them that the troops had died a most honorable death. It was true. They all wanted to die for The Pride if they had to, but this was just terrible. The Pride was now down to three fourths of what it was before the battle, and half was injured. Simba watched as Nala tended to their wounds and hugged devastated families. This was terrible. Simba looked around for Tareesh, who was standing in a corner, watching the antics of the animals.

"Tareesh. I-Uhh... I'm sorry for your loss." Simba received no response. After the appropriate amount of waiting transpired, Simba turned to leave.

"It's my fault."

Simba froze and looked back at the antelope.

Tareesh continued. "I told him to take my place, because I was getting too old. Now he's dead... Because of me..."

Simba looked sympathetically at him, and tried to help. "Tareesh. This is how Chunin wanted to die. You know that. And you know that this isn't your fault at all."

"I know Simba... it's just... Things could of... I just wish things had gone differently..."

Simba sighed and looked around at the other devastated animals, and sighed. "We all do."

Simba walked to the center of the cave, and related what had happened, to those that didn't already know. With solemn faces, they all went back to mending wounds and grieving for their losses.

Simba laid down on the rock that was considered their bed, in wait for Nala, who finally arrived, panting and sweaty. Simba noticed she was limping. "Nala! Are you okay?"

She quickly lied next to him to hide her pain. "I'm fine Simba, you need to worry about the others." She grunted in pain, and a tear fell from her eye. Simba looked into her eyes, and she gave in. He pushed her onto her belly and noticed the huge gash going down her back left leg, still fresh with blood.

"Oh Nala..." He licked the blood from her wound, and didn't stop, because he knew not else what to do, but wanted to help in any way he could. She broke down into tears.

"Oh Simba! This is all too much! Being queen is terrible! My friends are dying, and everyone's blaming each other, and we don't even have a home! And it's up to us to fix all of it!" Simba hugged her from behind and snuggled her until they were one solid body. He too was crying now.

"Shhh... Don't worry Nal'. There's always a way. We'll figure this out. No, I'll figure this out. I want you to rest. It would kill me if your leg got worse."

Nala sniffed. "I'm still scared." She turned her body around and buried her face in Simba's mane and wailed loudly. Simba held onto her as tight as he could, and ran his paw up and down her back, and occasionally nipped her ear. Eventually, the crying died down.

"Nala. None of this really matters to me. I only did it for you. I don't care about Pride Rock, or revenge, or The Pride. I just wanted a safe place for us to grow up in. It was all for you, and I've failed..." No response came. She had fallen asleep. Simba hugged her tighter into his body, and buried his face into the fur on her head. This was his mate, and inside was his child. He would never give up.


	10. Revenge

**Chapter 10: Revenge**

"Scar! You're not in your right mind!" Scar advanced towards Sarafina.

"Oh, that's where you're wrong Sarafina. You were always wrong! You were wrong to leave! You were wrong to make a fool out of me!"

"Scar! You ignorant bastard! I... I had to!" Tears streamed down Sarafina's face.

"You went ahead and told everyone! You just had to didn't you! I beat you ONCE! And you alert my brother immediately? Who's the-" Sarafina cut him off.

"I had to protect Nala! I couldn't trust you around her! Scar, I loved you. But you changed..."

"I never changed!" Scar was now dangerously close to Sarafina. "You just started caring SO much about that little brat! What about me Sarafina? What about Taka?"

"Shut up! You're not Taka anymore! You're Scar! You changed that night!"

Scar stood still and sneered. "Mufasa destroyed me on the outside that night. You destroyed me on the inside. Now I will destroy both parts of you, because you deserve it."

Sarafina turned to Nala. "Nala, go back to the den, tell Mufasa what's happening."

"No Mom! I wanna fight!"

"NOW!" Sarafina turned back around to face Scar, who jumped at her and pinned her to the ground. Nala stood motionless, numbed by what she was seeing. Scar licked Sarafina's cheek once, then slashed her throat with one quick swipe of his claw, and ended her life, as tears stung his eyes.

"Kill the brat."

Nala ran and didn't stop. How could she? She had nowhere to go.

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Pure emptiness. Emptiness of mind. Emptiness of emotion. Emptiness of all feeling. Nala stared at the wall this time. This time, she wasn't afraid of what her dreams could mean. She knew now. And the knowledge didn't elicit sadness. Just hatred. Hatred that Scar deserved. She didn't know what to say, what to think, what to feel, she just stared at the wall in disbelief.

"Nal', you're shaking, and it's the middle of the night. Are you okay?" She must have awakened Simba in her rage. She turned her gaze to him. He could sense the emptiness in her eyes.

"I don't know what to do Simba."

"Neither will I, until you tell me what's going on," he replied with a half laugh.

Nala looked down at her paws in the darkness. "I had that dream again." Understanding dawned upon Simba's face, and he hugged her tighter. "Scar killed my mother." She paused as she let this sink in. "And Scar is my father." She closed her eyes. Simba's brow wrinkled as his heart pained for his mate. "Why aren't you crying?"

A silence rested over the couple as Nala thought. "I don't know. I guess there's no reason to be sad."

"So we're both confused." Simba smiled hopefully. Nala didn't smile. He looked at her blank expression. There was no Nala in her eyes. Just icy cold hatred.

"I'm going to kill him."

Simba tried to understand Nala, but he couldn't. He couldn't imagine Mufasa killing Sarabi. And he couldn't imagine wanting to kill his own father. But Nala had good reason to. Simba continued to gaze at Nala, and licked her nose. "Well I'm here for you every step of the way." Nala just sat there, still completely emotionless. Simba closed his eyes, rather hurt that she didn't care about his affection. But she had a lot to think about. He figured he'd leave her alone with her thoughts, and went to sleep.

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

"Morning sleepyhead! We got hyena for breakfast!" Simba stared in disbelief at Nala, who was beaming at him. "Why are you looking at me that way?"

"Okay timeout! This isn't fair!" Nala giggled. Simba lied back down and smacked his forehead with his paw. "Lionesses and their mood swings..." Nala placed a piece of hyena on his snout, and he sniffed twice before it registered in his brain. He immediately attacked the tiny piece of meat. "Hyena!"

Nala giggled again, then pushed him back down. "Stay right where you are! I'll go get more." She limped out of their little room.

"Nal'! You shouldn't be walking on that!"

"Quiet! I'm fine!"

She came back with a huge slab of hyena meat in her mouth, and dropped it on Simba's belly, then she settled down next to him and watched him as he destroyed his breakfast. She just smiled at him with her head resting on her paws, and her tail wagging.

Simba slowed his devouring down as he became more full. He came out of his food trance and eyed Nala again, noticing her huge smile. "Okay, what's up? This is ridiculous Nal'." Nala's smile became a frown, and she cast her eyes down as she explained herself. "Alright. I'm sorry... I don't know what got into me last night. And I wanted to make it up to you this morning." She looked innocently up at Simba.

He smiled at her. "Hey, no worries! Hakuna Matata!"

Nala licked his snout, which tasted like hyena. "Thanks for understanding."

Simba was slapped in the face by the real world as he stepped out of his and Nala's room. He looked around, and was reminded how one-of-a-kind Nala really was. Everyone else was moping around sadly, if they weren't still asleep. At this time, most of the animals would be awake, taking care of business. He heard a cub start crying.

He turned to Nala. "This is ridiculous."

"Yeah, it's been like this all morning."

"I need to do something."

An ostrich slowly walked by Simba, and the king spoke to him, "Hey, could you please get word around that we're all to meet at the meeting circle in about an hour?" The ostrich looked at Simba with a blank stare. "Or, err, could you at least find someone else to get the word around?"

The ostrich said nothing for a bit, then sighed and nodded his head.

Simba turned deviously to Nala. "Now, since we've got an hour, and you're in an incredibly good mood..." Nala giggled and pulled Simba back into their room.

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Simba looked around at all the frowns. So much devastation had overwhelmed The Pride. It wasn't just a few animals who felt down; it was all of them. No one was there to comfort them. They all wallowed in a pit of despair. If only things had not turned up this way... but they did, and now he needed to deal with it. They needed a leader, someone who could relate to them. Someone who had been through it all, and now was going to get them through it. Simba closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then his voice interrupted the silence like a muddy oasis; unwelcome, but well needed.

"My family."

He let these words settle into their ears and blow the weight of their shoulders like a gentle wind. He watched as many animals relaxed and dried their eyes, now feeling ashamed for their self pity. They had it good.

"We're here right now because our loved ones died."

Eyes closed as many held back tears.

"But they died for us. To protect us. To protect our children. They were brave and strong, and shall be remembered forever. They're blood stains the dirt, and every time we walk over it, we will be reminded of their courage, and dedication. We will walk over their blood, their memory, in freedom, and we will know that they didn't die in vain."

The animals now kept a sincere interest in their king, their eyes looking into his amber jewels. He smiled, then looked down at his feet and began to pace.

"Look, I know it sucks. I know you feel like 'what's the point?' But Nala and I know what that's like. We lost our families, too." Simba choked up and sat back down. He composed himself. "We lost everyone." A flash of tan fur caught Simba's attention as Nala slowly ambled outside, holding back long repressed tears. "It wasn't easy. We will never know what it would have been like with our loved ones back with us. We'll never be able to show them what we've become. And we'll never be able to touch them again. But we had each other."

The congregation looked around at each other, and some managed to crack a smile.

"And that's all we need. Friendship, love, understanding. It's what gives us purpose, what gives us life. And we had friendship, love, and understanding in those that died. Which is why we have a purpose. And that is to do what they couldn't."

He looked around. They nodded their hands in agreement. They were understanding! They were getting this! Simba stood up and prepared himself.

"Take back Pride Rock!"

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Nala heard Simba's mighty roar, probably better than any he'd ever done before. But it did nothing to ease her mood. The wind slowly whistled by and rustled her fur. She sat beneath a tree, which was now missing bark in the shape of a claw scratch. She laid her head on her paws and watched the moon set behind Pride Rock, from her little hill top above The Cave. Her tears had stopped cascading, now only a slow stream of individual tears made it's way down her cheek, wetting her paws. All she could hear was the wind, and the occasional sniffle.

"Mommy. *sniff* I miss you." she closed her eyes as fresh tears forced their way onto her cheeks.

"You did so much for me. You were there before Simba. You were there when all seemed empty, like nothing mattered. You told me some day things would look up, and until then you would do anything. Anything you could, to make me happy. And you did. You always did. Every morning, you would help me put my fur a different way, in hopes that the other cubs would see beauty in me, but it never worked. Every day, they would laugh at me, and ask me why I even try to look pretty, cause it'll never happen. And I was pretty, god damnit!"

She struck the floor with her paw, then comforted it as it bled from the impact.

"How could anyone be so cruel? How could everyone be so cruel? Would it really have been terrible to admit that Nala looked pretty? I guess so!"

Her voice cracked as she screamed her soul into the wind.

"You were all so wrapped up in feeling important, feeling happy, that this little cub was left out! I have feelings too! I want to be loved! I'm important! Why did you leave me mom?"

Her screams turned into uncontrollable sobs as the hidden lion made his way toward her.

"Nala..."

She tried to stifle her emotions, but had no success. She hid her face and cried even harder.

"Oh Nal'. I know how you feel. I miss them too." Simba settled down right next to her and put his arm over her body. He put his head right next to hers as he comforted her. "Let it out Nal'. Let it out. She loves you so much. She didn't choose to die. She wanted to be with you right now, in these hard times."

Simba's voice began to crack as he comforted his mate.

"*sniff* I miss them too..."

Simba snuck his muzzle in-between Nala's arms, and they were closer than ever.

"Simba?" She paused. "Why? Why us? Why now?"

Simba licked her muzzle. "I've been asking myself that the whole time Nal'. None of it seems to make sense. You think there'd be a reason they died. A reason we're the only ones left. But I don't know it yet."

They sniffed simultaneously and the wind picked up. Simba jokingly told off the wind.

"Go away Dad! This is private time!"

Nala snorted, and Simba chuckled. The lioness lifted her head up and her lion followed suit.

"Why am I complaining?" She giggled. "I have you." Simba smiled. "I have everything I'll ever need. I have a strong mate, a caring mate. I have Simba, the prince. The one who saved me from my misery. The one who deserved better than me, but chose me. Why? I'll never know. He just came up to me and flipped my life right-side-up. My only wish is that I could do for him what he's done for me."

Simba's eyes began tearing up again as he scrunched them in concentration on hers.

"Nala... That... I.. I don't know what to say. I thought you had always done more for me. If anything, I should be doing more for you, and you've saved my life many times, and you're gonna bear our cub, and you made me breakfast this morning, and you-"

"Shhhh..." Nala put a paw over his muzzle, then removed it and kissed him. It wasn't long, but it got the point across.

"Thank you," she whispered.

Simba just smiled, not really knowing what to say. He looked at her sideways and raised his eyebrows. "Remember when you said this would make a good story. The Tale of Simba and Nala."

"Yeah."

"Maybe that's our purpose. Maybe we're going through all this so that the lions," he corrected himself, "animals in the future will understand what evil really is, and what it does, and how it can be conquered. And how we get through it all. Together."

Nala looked lovingly at Simba. "So that's the secret. Being together. Being one."

"Being a family."

Nala smiled as Simba placed his paw on her side, feeling for his cub. Nala nuzzled him, and collapsed onto her side. Simba did the same, and they looked into each other's eyes.

"I wonder what color her eyes are gonna be," Simba said. As if it was planned, the lioness replied "amber" as the lion replied "sapphire". They both laughed.

As happiness rang throughout The Cave, so it did up above, only a little quieter. Slowly, all the animals of The Pride fell asleep, except for the two lovers, who wanted to stare into their partner's eyes forever. But it didn't matter, for when they did fall asleep, that's exactly what they dreamt of, because nothing else compared.


	11. Amani

**Chapter 11: Amani**

As always, Simba somehow ended up curled around Nala during the night. Not that they minded. Simba loved having a nice, warm Nala to cuddle up with, and Nala loved having a Simba to protect her and keep her warm.

A member of The Pride walked by and looked at the sleeping monarchs. "What a rarity," he thought, "to have rulers as loving as this. It's truly a blessing."

The sun slowly creeped across Simba's back and he began to sweat. Distressed by the uncomfort, he slowly opened his eyes and saw a field of tan. He lifted his eyes out of Nala's fur, and chuckled at the thought of little animals running around in her fur field. He looked down at the sleeping lioness, and wished she were awake, but he did not want to wake her. So, he decided he'd wake her up pleasantly.

He began by gently nipping her ears, which were closest to him, and then he played with her tail with his own. He licked the fur on top of her head as he moved his paw slowly down her back.

"Morning Sire!"

All respect that Simba had for Zazu from the battle, was now gone.

"Morning annoying blue bird..."

"Simba!" Nala looked angrily at Simba.

"Oh awesome. You woke her up too."

Zazu cleared his throat to express his distaste for the name-calling. "Ever since your speech in The Cave, the animals have been thirsting for blood. They want to go back to war, regardless of their small size. Please go down there and knock some sense into them!"

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Simba entered The Cave, and looked around for Tareesh, but he was nowhere to be found. Simba sighed. He'd worry about Tareesh later. He roared to capture the attention of the war-crazed animals.

"Look, I understand that my speech yesterday aroused you all." He looked around at all the angry Pridelanders. "A LOT. But you're being way to rash. You all know that we can't take on Scar with all our losses holding us back. We're not as big anymore, and we lost our best fighters. Don't be irrational."

The congregation looked at each other, and calmed themselves, realizing how truly immature they were being.

"Now I don't know where Tareesh is-"

"Right here." The antelope leader entered the cave. "I'm sorry. I just had to take a walk."

"I understand. I take walks all the time. I wanted to ask you if you could watch over The Pride while Nala and I are gone."

"Of course," replied Tareesh, bowing, "But where are you off to?"

Simba turned back to his subjects, as the antelope joined them. "Nala and I are going to try and kill Scar."

Murmers filled the room.

"We have no chance of winning a battle with the strength we currently have. So we need to cut their strength. With Scar gone, a battle should be much easier."

A hippo spoke up. "But how are you gonna kill Scar? He's protected by his hyenas."

Nala revealed herself as she stepped up onto the rock that Simba was standing on. "We're going to hide. Sneak our way through Pride Rock, til we get Scar alone. Hyenas aren't very smart, so we hope that it shouldn't be too difficult. But-"

"It'll be dangerous." Simba finished her sentence, while frowning at the floor.

Nala looked worriedly at him, "Simba..."

Simba looked up into Nala's eyes and continued. "I don't know if you should be coming, with the cub and all. It's just not safe."

With everyone watching, Nala walked up to her mate and nuzzled him under the chin, then kept her head next to his. "I could never let you go alone. Our whole lives, we've been together. This family will never split. You die, we die."

Nala removed herself from Simba's side and silence fell upon The Pride. Simba just stared into her eyes, on the verge of tears.

"Oh Nal'. You're so right." The king slowly returned his attention to his subjects, and cleared his throat. "Now, we're gonna go kick some ass. You guys just wait til we get back." He winked at them and cheers echoed throughout The Cave. Simba smiled at Nala, who returned the expression, and they made their way, side by side, out of their fortress.

The sun was incredibly hot. There was no water. Only a giant rock jutting out of the ground in the distance.

Their home. Their childhood. Their future.

The trek was far from enjoyable, but the two lovers laughed the whole way there, remembering past experiences.

"and I've always wondered why you like strawberries so much. I mean, it's so-" Simba put his paw over Nala's muzzle and pulled her into a familiar log; this time they weren't so small, so the fit was tight. Coincidentally, just as before, two hyenas came by on their way to Pride Rock. Only this time, they seemed to be moving with more urgency.

"Is your brother gonna be part of the attack?"

"Of course he will! I'm sure he'll be in the front line! That show off..."

"Heh heh. That just means he'll die first, probably get impaled by a rhino."

"Yeah! Then guess who the head of the family will be?"

Silence.

"Me dipshit!"

"Oh right."

Their voices trailed off into the distance, and Simba and Nala emerged from the log.

Simba stood stiff, sincerely worried. "No! They're planning an attack on The Cave!"

Nala rubbed up against her mate. "Don't worry. It can't be right now."

Simba's expression didn't budge. "I know, but we're not ready! We just can't do it with the numbers we have. And if they're planning it now, we definitely won't have enough time to build our army..."

They both lowered their gaze to the ground, and Nala closed her eyes. "It just means we HAVE to succeed today. There's no room for failure."

Simba looked up and sighed. "You're right... Maybe we shoulda brought more with us."

Nala walked over to Simba and put her paws on his face. "Simba, my precious, kingly, caring Simba. With more, we'd be caught. You planned this perfectly."

Simba smiled. "What would I do without you?"

Nala shook her head and turned back towards Pride Rock.

They now walked in silence, to avoid detection as best as they could. They circled around the outskirts of Pride Rock before arriving at the back entrance. The food pile wasn't being monitored. What could that mean? Neither of them remembered their way through Pride Rock, because their childhood was so long ago, or at least it seemed like it was. So they slowly creeped up the road, leading to the inner parts of the rock. At the first sight of a few rocks to hide behind, the couple dashed behind them and waited.

A couple minutes passed before Simba whispered, "It doesn't look like too much is going on right now."

"Yeah, it's great."

"It's our lucky day. Cmon let's move up further."

Simba led the way further up the path, as Nala began to play with his tail. Simba turned around and smiled and Nala innocently smiled back. Even in the most dangerous of times, love will always be present.

The road curved around a corner and Simba poked his head out past the corner, to see Karkass's back three feet away. He quickly whipped his head back around and widened his eyes, to tell Nala not to move. Their ears perked up as they eavesdropped.

"We're tired of you Talca. You're good for nothing! You can't hunt, you can't fight, and hell, you cant even keep a family together. Why do we keep you?"

Silence.

"Hmph," Karkass smiled, pleased with how Talca was taking this, "And you can't even watch the food pile without complaining."

Talca tightened his face in anger.

"Fellow hyenas, comrades, do we have a reason not to kill this pathetic excuse of an animal?"

Every hyena watching remained silent.

"I'm giving you one last chance to leave, Talca. Or should I just have a chat with your family?" He slowly backed up and came within view of the two hidden lions. Simba's heart began hammering against his insides, and Nala held her breath.

Talca jumped. "Stop!"

Karkass's body froze.

"Leave them out of this! They did nothing wrong!"

Karkass laughed so loud that Simba and Nala's ears rang. "And neither did you! But you see, you did nothing right!" Karkass reversed directions and disappeared from the king and queen's view. They heard Talca flee from the scene and Karkass follow in pursuit.

Simba poked his head back out into the open and saw no one. Nala stepped past him and dropped her head. "They're terrible. Terrible, terrible animals."

Simba nuzzled her. "Cmon Nal. We gotta keep moving." Nala took a deep breath, held her head up high, and followed her king.

Periodically, they had to hide behind rocks and walls, but it seemed that the hyenas were all pretty involved with watching Karkass ridicule Talca. Nala frowned at the idea, but was reminded by Simba that it made things easier for them, which in the long run helped many more animals than just one hyena. They had almost made it to den when Nala lost her footing by slipping on some loose rubble. She screamed and Simba winced. As her side came tumbling down, she saw the edge of the road and her paws slipped off of it, followed by the rest of her body.

Simba whipped around. "Nala!" He peered down to where she had rolled, and noticed the abundance of hyenas around her. "Oh, hell no!" He slid down the side of the road and stopped himself at Nala's side. The hyenas advanced towards them and Simba unsheathed his claws. Luckily, the fall hadn't hurt Nala too badly and she stood up, ready to fight as well.

The first hyena stupidly tried to jump over them. Simba jumped into his belly and it went flying over the edge. Nala took the next two oncoming enemies by swiping the one on the left with her claw as she spun her body into the other. The one on the right fell unconscious, while the one on the left was stepped on by another hyena, who tackled Nala. Little did he know, she could flip him right back over.

She dismounted her surprised victim and turned her attention back to Simba, who's leg was taken out from under him. Two hyenas piled onto his back as he laid on the floor.

Nala flew through the air and rammed her head into the side of the hyena on top. The hyena's body fell limp as she slammed him into the wall. She turned her head to see three more hyenas coming at her. "They don't stop coming..." She ran backwards up the slanted wall, and kicked off of it with her hind legs. She flew through the air once again, and landed even farther from her husband.

Simba ducked as another hyena went flying overhead, awkwardly landing on top of another to his right. He leaped up into the air and two hyenas collided beneath him. He landed on top of them and threw them away from each other with his paws. Their bodies took down a couple hyenas each and he swiped at the one to his front. He felt his tail explode in pain, so he slid under the hyena to his front, flicked him up into the air, and reversed directions. The hyena that had attacked his tail crouched into a jumping position, but he was cut short by the airborne hyena, landing squarely on his back. Simba laughed.

Nala continued to back up as she couldn't push through the line of hyenas in front of her. She was backed up into a thin road, that twisted in circles. She watched her paws to make sure she didn't slip and fall again as she held off the oncoming hyena onslaught as best she could. They rapidly brought her farther and farther away from Simba.

The thin road became a large plateau as she realized that she was at the complete top of Pride Rock. "SIMBA!" she desperately screamed. There was nothing she could do. Out of necessity, she jumped on top of the hoard of blood thirsty hyenas.

At the sound of his mate's desperate plea, Simba's blood began to boil and he created a new definition for the term adrenaline. He bounded over several hyenas and made his way up the road that she had just traversed. At the top of the road he saw his lover beat up and bloodied on the floor, with hyenas continuing to slash at her already limp body.

"NO! STOP! GET OFF OF HER!"

He leaped and collided with the hyena on top of her. Instant karma was dealt as the hyena flew completely off of the top of Pride Rock.

"STOP IT YOU BASTARDS! WHAT'D SHE EVER DO TO YOU?"

He stood over her body and bit and clawed every hyena that attempted to attack her. She was his priority. He didn't even notice the rest of the hyenas, who were tearing his skin to pieces. Blood covered his eyes so he couldn't see, but he couldn't give up. Emotion filled his voice as he yelled out one more desperate plea, "I, love her!"

"STOP!"

Every hyena froze, and silence filled the scene. Dust rose into the air and drifted off into the distance. Scar stood at the mouth of the road that led to the plateau. He slowly made his way past his followers, and stood over the two mutilated bodies of the king and queen.

"Now, haven't I been lucky lately."

Simba bared his teeth at his uncle and quietly growled.

"You two are really dumb. You even surpassed my expectations. I would NEVER have thought that you would gift wrap yourselves so nicely for me. It's rather convenient."

Simba could only manage a whisper. "Why?"

"Excuse me?"

"Why do you do this? What do you have to gain?"

"Just like your father... Asking questions that you already know the answer to. You're a disgrace Simba." Scar brought his face to Simba's, and said, "You know, you could do a lot of good if you swore your allegiance to me. You're a powerful lion."

Simba roared in his face and Scar jumped back.

"Hpmh," he narrowed his eyebrows at Simba.

A cocky hyena jumped out in front of the croud. "I can finish them for you!

"No... Leave them to bleed to death. I want them to feel the pain that I felt my whole life." Scar turned his back on his nephew and daughter, and declined Pride Rock, followed by his hyenas.

The two lovers laid on their backs, and watched the stars. Nala felt around for Simba's paw, and when she found it, she grabbed hold of it, and didn't let go. A long silence followed, and was finally broken by Simba's steady voice.

"Ya know, I did this all for you." A rain drop hit him in the nose.

"I never cared about Pride Rock, or the Pridelands, or The Pride. Just you. I know it's selfish, but it's the truth." He gulped as he held back tears, which Nala let slowly fall down her cheeks.

"Every time you looked at me, every time you said my name, heck, every time I thought about you, I got this feeling. This incredible feeling... But it was never the feeling that mattered."

The tears broke through as he continued. "But... But when I saw you got bullied, it hurt me more than anything, ever. When you cried, it hurt me more than anything, ever. When you gave up on trying, it hurt me more than anything, ever. And I never wanted to feel that way again. So I wanted to do everything in my power to make you happy." Nala closed her eyes as the tears stung them, now cascading onto the rocky surface below her. "That's when I realized that nothing else mattered. That when all the other cubs wanted to be like me, it didn't matter. That when all the girl cubs flirted with me, it didn't matter. That I was getting the whole fucking kingdom! It didn't matter. You mattered, Nal'. You mattered." Simba sniffed.

"And I told myself, that no matter what happens, no matter what you do, or whatever anybody else does, I will always love you. And I always did. You, with your beautiful sapphire eyes. The eyes that I would stare into and just... Just take in all the different little details of. Your soft, warm paws, that would hold onto mine, and tell me that you're there for me. Your lips, that would take me places I never thought I could go, where everything is turned upside down, and where we're unstoppable. And you voice. Oh, your voice. The voice that confessed your love to me. The voice that convinced me that you felt the same way about me as I do about you. The voice that called out to me in need. Nal'. You're unbelievable, and if I haven't made you feel like the most special lioness ever, than I've failed my task."

"Oh Simba." Theirs paws were gripping each other so fiercely, that they had to relax them now, to recuperate their muscles. "You have no idea. *sniff* You have no idea how happy I am, how happy I've always been. You ARE my life. You gave me life, and kept giving it to me ever since. I'm so in love with you Simba, that most of the time, I don't even know what to do about it, and I do crazy stuff. *sniff* and I'll love you forever."

"Forever and ever."

More silence followed, but it didn't feel like it to Simba and Nala. They were so much in the presence of each other, that it felt like they were dancing, to the rhythm of the rain.

Nala weakly pointed to the sky with her free hand. "You see that really bright star up there?"

"Yeah.

"I think it's Mufasa."

Simba's mouth gaped.

"And the smaller star next to it is Sarabi, and that one near it is my mom."

"I..." He smiled. "Hi Mom, hey Dad."

"Hi Mommy."

"I miss you.

"We both miss you."

"But we'll be there soon. We'll see you again.

"And you can meet your granddaughter."

Silence followed as this realization hit them. Not only were they dying, so was their cub.

"Hey Nala, we need a name for her."

She responded without hesitation, "Amani, it means peace. Because it's not her time yet. But one day, she will come. One day, Scar, her grandfather, will be gone. Then, she may come. Then, she will rule the Pridelands, and govern all life. And she will rid the world of evil. But that time is not now."

Simba painfully twisted his body so he could see his wife. "That's beautiful."

Nala did the same. "Thanks. I put a lot of thought into it." They smiled at each other, then sang.

"We'll do it all,

everything,

on our own.

We don't need,

anything,

or anyone.

If I lay here,

if I just lay here,

would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I don't quite know,

how to say,

how I feel.

Those three words,

are said too much,

they're not enough.

If I lay here,

if I just lay here,

would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what were told,

before we get too old,

show me a garden that's burstin into life.

Let's waste time,

chasin cars,

around our heads.

I need your grace,

to remind me,

to find my own.

If I lay here,

if I just lay here,

would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told,

before we get too old,

show me a garden that's burstin into life.

All that I am,

all that I ever was,

is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see.

I don't know where,

confused about how as well,

just know that these things will never change for us at all.

If I lay here,

if I just lay here,

would you lie with me and just forget the world?"

"Chasing Cars" - Snow Patrol


	12. Peace

**Chapter 12: Peace**

Black. Darkness. Cold. Alone. Exhausted. Relaxing. Soft. Comfortable. Peaceful. Pain!

One of Simba's eyes shot open, then closed again. A headache brought another searing pain to his aching body. Unfortunately, the headache came with a lift of his arm to his forehead, which caused even more pain. He laid motionless. Any movement hurt.

Where was he? He could've sworn he had just died. With Nala. Could this be heaven? Cause he sure as hell didn't imagine heaven being full of pain.

The bloodied lion carefully opened his eye again; curiosity becoming more important than comfort. He was in a cave. Maybe it was The Cave! He lifted his head and looked down at his body. Much to his dismay, gashes ran along every part of his torso, and from the feeling of pain throughout his entire body, he figured that his torso was not the only part of him that was torn apart.

He dropped his head back down and cursed himself for being too quick about it. Once his head pain had diminished, he turned his head to his left. Just a wall. Groaning, he rolled his head to the right, promising that it was the last movement he'd make. And it was well worth it. To his right was the same beautiful lioness he had been lying next to as he was dying. Regardless of the blood covering half her face and the cuts across her mouth, she was still beautiful; to Simba at least. He smiled, and the cuts around his mouth cracked open, giving him the taste of blood. Simba made a conclusion:

They were alive, but not in good condition.

Thank god. Being dead would have caused way too many problems, and would have been rather unfortunate. Then again, this situation was pretty unfortunate anyway. How could they kill Scar when they can't move? How could The Pride do anything without their leaders? Well, they've got Tareesh. Thoughts ran through Simba's mind as he continued to gaze at his wife.

"Awake yet?"

Simba's ears rang as the voice took it's affect on him.

Whipsering, the unknown voice continued. "Oops. Sorry. I'll be quieter."

It was Tareesh. Well that confirms Simba's thoughts on the setting. That's one positive thing to think about.

"I bet you're pretty confused. You should be. We didn't exactly see this coming." Tareesh laid a hoof on Simba's side, bringing another searing pain to his attention. "You were rescued by a rather unexpected friend. I'll let you meet him when you're a little more, well... well."

The old antelope exited the room and Simba let his eyes close. Dreamland would be a little more enjoyable than reality at the moment.

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Simba awoke again, this time to less pain, and a lioness curled around him. God, how he loved her. Her presence, felt along the side of his body, brought all the darkness out of his life. He smiled, then licked her nose. Hey! Moving his neck didn't hurt anymore!

He examined the light-furred creature and noticed that the blood had been cleaned off, and the cuts had stopped bleeding, but they were still as deep as ever. It hurt him to see her like this, and to know that he couldn't protect her. His everything. And he couldn't do a god damn thing to keep her alive. Someone else had to save them...

"Ah, Simba! You're awake!" Tareesh entered the room with a smile on his face.

"You seem awfully happy," Simba looked at him with a questioning eye, "That's unusual. What's up?"

"Things are looking up Simba! They're looking up! It's so great! We might have a chance after all!" The antelope was practically jumping for joy as he said this.

"Haha. Settle down. What is it?"

"Well I figure you should meet your savior before I explain." And with that, Tareesh quickly left the room.

"It's nice to hear your voice again."

A smile instantly lit up Simba's face and he looked down at his mate. "Nala! Oh, you're voice is incredible too." He nuzzled her, not being able to do much more than that due to his physical limitations.

Nala purred and kept her eyes closed.

"Are you okay? You look pretty beat up."

"Yeah Simba, I'm fine. I don't know if you've looked at yourself lately, but you look pretty bad too."

"Well thanks. I try my best you know."

Nala opened her eyes and laughed loudly. "Don't you know you're the best looking lion, EVER?" She licked his nose and stared deep into his eyes.

"Well... I mean... I've been told..."

Nala kept a straight face as she became lost in her thoughts about Simba's eyes. "Ya know. You can never really see how amazing eyes are until you really look at em. And yours look pretty damn awesome."

Simba kissed her. "Well that's good to know. Seeing as you've looked into so many lion's eyes, you're a pretty reliable critic."

Nala rolled her eyes and laughed, "Well we can pretend, can't we?"

Nala's eyes grew wide in fear as a hyena walked through the door. Simba turned around and made an effort to jump at him, but pain kept him glued to the ground. "Who the hell are you?" he spat.

Tareesh came running into the room. "Shh! Careful! It's ok. He's a friend." He discontinued his panting. "He's your savior."

Simba's and Nala's mouths dropped open in disbelief. "Wait, what? I, how?... Why?"

The hyena spoke up, "Heh heh. I guess I should explain myself. He sat down, as did Tareesh, and began his story.

"Well first off, my name is Talca. I have a wife, who's name is Rarlta, and two children. All my life, I lived in the Mataki clan. We knew your father well, and we obeyed his orders. We were allowed to feed off of the carcasses of deceased animals. We were happy. Very happy. But we were weak. We were forced by Scar and his minions to attack Pride Rock with them. We had no choice. And when they took control of the Pridelands, we had no choice but to follow them. I tried to make myself useful, for the sake of my family. I joined the fighting forces, but I just couldn't kill another animal. As a result of my hesitance, one of our commanding officers was murdered. Scar didn't like that. So, he-" The hyena stopped and swallowed, trying to keep himself from choking up, "He, Uhh. Well, as a punishment, he placed my sons next to each other, and held them down. Then I was held down above them, with a pile of rocks at my side. He said, 'You have killed one of mine, now you must kill one of yours.' So, *sniff* I had to choose, between my own sons. And I chose to kill the older of the two, Rastu, because the younger one had longer to live, Talot. Then he said, 'If you don't want them both to die, then you must *sniff* fill Rastu's mouth with these stones, until it is overflowing.'" Tears ran freely down Talca's face and he looked towards the ground. Simba and Nala did the same, in disbelief. Talca closed his eyes as he continued. "So, I did. Then Scar told me to place my paw over Rastu's nose, so he could not breath. And I did. And he struggled. And... And he died... From my paws..."

"Talca, you had no choice."

"It doesn't matter! I killed my son!" A long silence followed before Talca continued. "Look, I hate that bastard, and I will do anything to avenge my son's death, and to keep my family from further harm. That's why I carried you to safety, with the help of my family, unnoticed. Luckily, your bird friend saw us and fetched some of The Pride to bring you here."

Nala looked sincerely at Talca. "Thank you so much, Talca. We're sorry for your losses. So, so sorry. I couldn't even imagine if Amani was taken from me. But you really have avenged Rastu's death, by saving us. You have done so much for us. You've quite literally, saved Peace."

Tareesh interrupted, "Oh, come on! Do you seriously not see how great this is?"

Simba scowled at Tareesh for interjecting during Nala's heartfelt thanks.

"We have a spy. An inside animal. This changes everything!"

Simba and Nala looked toward each other, then Simba looked down at Nala's slightly bulging torso, and smiled.

Their Amani will be safe.

Talca raised an eyebrow. "Ok, look. I'm not THAT great. This doesn't mean you can just relax while I take Pride Rock. There's still a very large chance of failure!"

Simba continued to gaze at Amani's cradle. "Well that's nothing to dwell on. I don't know if you've noticed from your stay, but the animals out there need a lot of optimism to keep them going."

Tareesh nodded knowingly.

Simba continued, "So try to keep our chances of failure quiet."

Talca bowed. "I understand."

Simba relaxed and laughed. "I would have never thought I'd see the day when a hyena bowed to me."

Nala chuckled. "Peace."

This word drifted through the air like a welcome breeze. None of them spoke, but just thought, meditating on the long awaited change of purpose.

Simba opened his eyes. "We're no longer fighting for Pride Rock. We're fighting for peace."

Nala echoed, "for Peace."

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

After a productive meeting, the four animals had made many decisions, intricate plans. Talca bowed once more and licked Nala on the cheek, then departed, with his dwindling family following closely behind.

Nala turned her head to Simba's questioning expression. "Oh, come on! I'm queen now! You can't be the only one I kiss." She nuzzled him under the chin, then looked deviously into his eyes. "but you ARE the only one I-"

"Get back! Get back! Rally the troops!" Tareesh came speeding by, issuing orders at the top of his lungs. He stopped and backtracked to the king and queen. "Simba! Nala! They're attacking us, at the mouth of the cave! Help!" Then he galloped off, leaving the two lovers in a stupor.

"Err, Uhh" Simba slapped himself in the face. "C'mon, Let's go!"

They split off in separate directions, Simba towards the mouth of the cave, Nala further in so she could spread the news.

The king arrived at the battle scene. Good, it looks like Talca and his family got out just in time.

There were about fifty hyenas, all being successfully kept out of The Cave. The elephants were forming a barrier, but it would be breached soon. Simba leaped into the fray to help his comrades.

He dodged left, then dodged right, avoiding two hyenas. He rammed straight into the chest of the biggest hyena in the pack. It arose. It had one eye missing, and drool dripping to the floor in amounts that Simba never thought possible. It opened its mouth and let spit coat Simba's face as it addressed the king in a hoarse voice, "Care to dance?"

Simba dodged left into a group of hyenas, then barreled past them, wound around the one-eyed hyena, then sprinted headfirst into its back, with an impact that lifted it from the ground. "Sure as hell I do!"

Overconfident, Simba went for its neck, preparing his jaws for the kill, but the hyena recovered quickly and whipped around, slicing Simba's face with his teeth.

All the pain that he had forgotten about forced its way back into his consciousness. He grimaced and lied on the floor, unable to move.

How terrible it was, to lie there, knowing that this was the end. That his family would die. No! Not again! Tears streamed down the lion's face, clouding his vision. He counted down the seconds before the hyena's charge would take his life, but he remained unharmed. He opened his eyes, and saw a flash of color. Zazu!

The bird, upon seeing his friend near death, dove straight out of the sky to his aid, landing his talons squarely in the hyena's eye.

Terror gripped the hyena as his one last hope for life was taken from him. He was blind... Hopeless. He collapsed.

Zazu unsheathed himself, and hovered above, bewildered. The hyena had given up.

Simba crawled over to the unmoving body, and lifted its head up. "What are you doing?"

Through sobs, the hyena replied, "I'm blind! I'm useless! Take my life..."

At that moment, the noise of the battle instantly subsided. Simba looked around. Every hyena was either dead or had run away, and his mate was looking at him, panting and bloodied. Then she collapsed, and smiled at him. He returned the smile, relieved that she was okay, then turned his attention back to the blind hyena. Its shallow breathing brought compassion into Simba's voice, "What's your name?"

It replied, hoarsely and with little breath, "Zeru." He paused and inhaled. "Zeru… the sly."

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

During meal time, Nala questioned her mate, "Simba, you really think it's a good idea to let him stay here?"

Simba chewed on his grass, and replied, "Nal'. He's blind. What could go wrong?"

Nala rested her head between her paws and scrunched her eyebrows in worry. "I just don't trust him. You don't know what he's capable of."

Simba swallowed and looked seriously at his mate. "Look Nala, he could be an invaluable source of information. I've made my decision, and you can't do anything about it."

Nala looked down at her paws, "I'm sorry. I was just voicing my thoughts."

Simba looked down at her. "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped." He moved to her side and nudged his head next to hers. "You should be able to tell me anything."

Nala licked his nose. "Just... Be careful, ok?" Her eyes begun to water. "I don't want Amani to be fatherless, like us."

"Oh, Nal'..."

The couple lied there for quite some time, before Simba spoke up again, wanting to lighten the mood. "So, Queen Nal'. What's the summary of today?"

Nala smiled and pretended to ponder her response. "Well, Zazu proved that he's not a TOTAL loser. You got MORE beat up. We have a potentially dangerous prisoner. And we killed forty hyenas. All in all," she licked his chin, "A perfect day."


	13. Love Prevails Always

**Chapter 13: Love Prevails Always**

"Gah, stop it!"

Simba swatted at the little cub next him, who was dripping the water that was cupped in a leaf onto his head.

"What? Does scawred widdle Simby not like to get wet?"

Simba knocked his paw on the trunk of the tree adjacent to them, and a shower of dew hit the unsuspecting cub. Her squeal in response made him smile.

"Well, I guess I deserved that..." She repositioned herself against the boy cub, then rested her head on his furry neck, much to his amusement. "When will the rain stop? We can't play when it's so wet like this..."

"I don't know Nala. But it's kinda cool. Being dry, when all around us it's raining."

Nala confirmed this observation by looking up at the huge leaf protecting them from the rain. "Yeah, I like it too. But some of us are drier than others."

Simba laughed.

Nala snuggled up a little closer. "I just hope we don't get in too much trouble for being out here overnight."

"You kidding me? We wont be able to watch the hunts for weeks! But whatever, it's worth it."

The girl cub giggled then sighed. The boy cub smiled and closed his eyes. Then Nala began licking his head. WHAT? Simba didn't remember this happening, but he liked it. The licking became stronger, more prominent, more real.

"Nala?"

"Morning Simba."

"Aaah!" he jumped back against the wall. "You're old!"

"Well thanks Simba... We're only teenagers, do I REALLY look that old?"

"No! I mean, you're not a cub." he steadied his breathing. "I must have been dreaming, haha."

Nala understood and smiled, then walked over to him and sat next to him. "What were you dreaming about?"

"Us, when we were cubs. Remember that night we spent under the leaf in the pouring rain?"

"Oh yeah! That was fun!"

"Yeah, but this time you were licking me."

"Oh, now it makes sense! I was licking you awake, and you kept making this weird face, like you were surpr-."

Simba cut off her explanation with a kiss. "I love you."

Nala closed her eyes. "It's always just as good as the first time. Though the first time, it tasted like strawberries."

The king burst out laughing. "Haha, yep." he sighed. "That was a great day."

"Sorry, don't mean to interupt."

The couple looked up to see their traitor hyena in the doorway. "Ah! Talca! No, no, it's fine. Come on in."

The lions rose and greeted their guest with a hug. "What brings you here?"

"News, sir. Bad news." His smile disappeared. "Scar is planning an attack on The Cave, today!"

Simba and Nala's eyes grew wide. "Hold that thought, let's call a meeting."

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Gathered in a circular room were the army officers and other important animals. Simba spoke first. "So, terrible news has come to my attention, and I would like the bearer of if to explain it please."

All eyes turned to Talca. He nervously cleared his throat. "Ahem. So, uhh, by the way, heh, I am your spy. And it has been decided by Scar that a full frontal assault will be taken on The Cave." An awkward silence filled the room. "Today!" Murmurs of worry followed this exclamation. When it had quieted down, Talca continued. "He wants to get us while we're weak, but what HE doesn't know, is that all his battle plans are known by me. So-"

"Then we attack." Attention reverted back to Simba. "If we take them by surprise, they won't know what to do. We bring the fight to them."

"But I know they're battle strategy, everything! First, they send in the-"

"No no no. Talca look. We will die no matted what if we fight here. Sure, it's nice that we can defend from the mouth of The Cave, but we can also only ATTACK from the mouth. Which doesn't give us a huge advantage. And with our numbers, we'll need a much bigger advantage to over take them. The element of surprise." Simba's logic silenced Talca. "but thank you so much for the information. You've saved our lives."

"I have information, too."

Every animal craned their neck towards the door, where the hoarse voice came from. "I know how they fight. I know what they'll do. I know- wait, shh." The flap of wings in front of the newcomer caught his attention. "It's you!"

Zeru flew towards the noise and groped about with his hands, but they only caught air. Zazu flew a safe distance away from the crazed hyena. "You're the one who gouged my eyes out!"

Simba snapped at him. "Zeru! That will not be tolerated here!"

Zeru collected himself and collapsed to the floor. "I'm sorry. Just not used to this place."

"That's ok. Forgive and forget, then tell us what we need to know."

The blind hyena stood back up and continued, "I don't need to tell you. I just need to command the troops." he smiled, which was very creepy, since his eyes were looking two different directions and foam emitted from the corners of his mouth. The attendance cringed at the sight, but fortunately they were not seen by Zeru. "Look, I know the ins and outs of their whole operation. Give me some troops to command, and you're good to go. I just need to be able to see, ya know? I need someone to be my eyes and ears."

Simba nodded. "That can be arranged. Thank you Zeru." He turned his head and noticed the stern stare his wife was giving him. He ignored it. "Well, we can decide our strategy on the way there. It's crucial we get there soon, while they're still preparing. But we need something extra, something to really seal the deal."

Thoughts were thrown about for a few minutes, none good enough to make the cut. Then the queen spoke up, rather loudly and excitedly. "I can attack from behind!"

Silence.

"Genious! That's why you're my wife. But I don't think-"

"Simba... it'll be the safest place I can be. They won't suspect anything. It's much safer then being out in the front lines like last time."

The king pondered this for a moment then nodded. "Alright, fine. I'm convinced. Well that concludes this meeting. Everyone, gather your troops. We march in 30 minutes. Zeru, you can take Chunin's troops. This ends today!"

Nala punched Simba's side once they were alone again. She whispered angrily, "Are you insane? You just put a whole army under Zeru's control! He could so easily back-stab us! I mean, cmon! Zeru, the SLY!"

Simba stopped walking, sighed, and looked sincerely into Nala's eyes. "Look Nal'. We have no choice. If we want to take Pride Rock back and kill that bastard, we need Zeru, so I have to trust him. I think he was sent by them."

Nala scrunched her eyebrows, confused. "Who?"

"Our parents. They have to be watching over us. We've been getting really lucky lately, especially with Talca."

"Yeah, I guess so." she laughed and looked upwards. "Thanks mommy."

Simba licked her forehead, then went to look for his troops.

"Hey Simba!" The king turned around to see his spy bow to him. "I'll be heading back to Pride Rock now."

"Say 'hi' to the wife and kid."

"Will do. And we'll make sure to cause havoc behind enemy lines."

Simba smiled. "Awesome."

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Once all the troops were rallied, the army began to march towards Pride Rock. The leaders were at the front, discussing war plans. Simba, as always, began. "First off, we need eyes for Zeru, and it's been generously offered by the one that took away your sight, to give it back."

This took a little while to register in Zeru's mind, then he complained. "You've got to be kidding me..."

"Nope." Simba moved right on. "So, as for myself, and everyone else besides Nala and Zeru, we'll put on a nice show. A frontal attack, nothing else. They won't be expecting anything fancy with Chunin dead anyway. We'll try to kill as many as we can. As for Zeru, do your thing. And Nala, you know what to do."

The lack of planning would have normally worried them, but they felt so confident, they could care less.

The top of Pride Rock came into view and Simba stopped the march. He took a deep breath, then stepped forward, and everyone else followed. Soon, Scar would see them and know of their plan.

The sun was at the peak of the sky, so they all smelled of sweat, but it didn't matter. They were going into battle, a battle they would win for sure. Simba smiled. High spirits were key. He had The Pride in just the right mood.

The royal ledge came into view, and on it stood Scar, but not for long. Chaos was heard among the hyenas. Orders rang out. They knew what was happening; The Pride was coming.

Simba looked around. His mate was gone. Good, the first part of the plan was in action.

An unusual amount of screaming was heard from Pride Rock. Simba smelled smoke. He laughed. Talca was doing his job.

As they came closer to the giant rock, Simba's thoughts were proven true. Flames ran around and through Pride Rock, with nothing to douse the flames, they were forced to find alternative ways around them. This hindered they're organization, which was just what Simba needed.

"Charge!"

Obeying the king's command, The Pride quickened their pace until they were sprinting towards their home. Answering the call, Scar ordered his minions to do the same. Slowly, the opposers came into clearer view. The king unsheathed his claws, and looked to his side at Tareesh, who offered to accompany Simba at the front of the line, driven by the desire to avenge his friend's death. Simba smiled, then turned his attention back towards the enemy, but it was too late.

The world spun as his lungs gave way to the force of the hyena who pounced upon him. Regaining control of his body, he threw the hyena into the air, and jumped into the fray. Landing on an enemy, he used its body to jump forward and bash skulls with another. Behind this hyena was Tareesh, kicking two hyenas in the face with his hind legs. Simba jumped over him and clawed one in the face. "Didn't know you still had it in you." He received no response and looked back at the old antelope, and saw nothing but hatred in his eyes. He furiously kicked at anything that moved, and Simba decided it would be best to keep his distance.

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Zeru, at the back of The Pride, spoke to his troops. "So, you better all be brave, cause I'm gonna make you do some pretty crazy stuff. But it'll work." He wasn't aware of the caliber of his troops. After all, this was Chunin's brigade. "This little idiot bird is gonna tell me what's goin on, so hold on a bit."

Zazu gave the hyena an angry look, which Zeru could not see, then replied, "It looks rather straightforward currently. Just one big mess in the- wait a minute. It looks like they're splitting up."

"Hah! Easy! They're splitting a line down the middle so that they're on the outside, and The Pride's on the inside. Not if I can help it." He laughed then pointed towards nothing in particular. "Push em back together."

Zeru's troops made their way towards the leftmost blob of hyenas, and made an effort to push them back, which they obviously disliked.

"It's going well Zeru. They're slowly moving back. Wait! Now they're jumping into the middle. That's suicide!"

"No! It's just a decoy. Tell one Pridelander to hold the decoy down, then focus on the rest."

Zazu flew towards the fray and delivered the message, then flew back to relay more information. "That seems to have worked."

"Lemme get over there." Zeru the Sly made his way over towards his troops and remained behind them, able to order them about. "Attack left! Then right! Then left! Then right! And zig-zag as you advance!" This successfully countered every advance by the enemy.

The hyena in charge of this group of hyenas noticed Zeru and understood how they anticipated every move. The enemy general formed a plan.

Zazu left to go check on Simba and returned shortly, but he screamed upon returning, "Zeru! To your left! Hyenas!"

"What? I can't see!"

Zazu improvised. "Jab left!"

Zeru jabbed to his left paw and hit a hyena square in the face.

"Dodge right! Back up! Swipe left! Jump! Right in front of you! There's two behind you! Get to your right! Back slide, then another left jab."

A circle of unconscious hyenas surrounded Zeru and he laughed out loud and smiled at Zazu, or at least where he thought he was. "You ain't so bad after all!"

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Simba was fighting really well today, despite his many injuries, but pain was nothing right now. Worry for his mate trumped any physical feeling. Where was she? They should have been here by now! He smashed two hyenas together then spun around and cut the throat of another.

A high pitched scream reached his ears and he looked up immediately. He knew that scream.

He jumped past several hyenas, towards the noise, and he saw Nala, overwhelmed by a multitude of hyenas. Dammit! What could have gone wrong?

The king jumped up onto a bluff and watched as his mate fought her heart out, but it was too much for her to handle, and her troops were busy getting slaughtered.

"No! Leave her alone! Someone help! Stop it!" Tears poured freely down his face as he saw her blood strewn across the floor. She made eye contact with her lover, then collapsed.

"Noooooo!" His voice cracked as he screamed at the top of his lungs. Hyenas were making their way up towards him on the bluff. He couldn't do anything to help his mate. Her whole brigade was behind her, dead. But she wasn't dead, she was still breathing, and they picked her up. "Put her down! Put my mate down! Leave her alone!" He broke down into torrential sobs. This was like nothing he had ever felt before. Worse then the waterfall incident. His Nala was being taken away from him

Simba clawed the first hyena to reach him, then swiped his arm at the next few causing them to plummet to their death. A rage controlled his body. One after another hyenas died at his paws, but they began to overwhelm him, so he jumped back towards his army, to safety. He couldn't fight. Not now.

"Retreat! Retreat! Plan failure! Surprise attack failure! Retreat!"

All hell broke loose. The battle became a slaughter as they turned their backs, and left their defenses down. The Pridelanders abandoned all hope and followed their king, back to The Cave.

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"Aaaaaaagh!" Simba smashed his paw into the wall of The Cave. He was in his room, bouncing off the walls , trying to find a way to soothe himself. "They have her! No! They're going to rape her! And I can't do anything about if!"

Everyone heard their king on his rampage. They didn't understand. They never had what Simba and Nala had.

Tareesh entered the king and queen's room. "Simba!"

"Shut up!"

The antelope noticed the many piles of regurgitated food on the floor, along with the blood marks on the wall. He looked up at Simba, bewildered. "Did you throw up?"

The king rested his paws against the wall and drooped his head down. "Yes..."

Tareesh figured out why there was blood on the walls. Simba's paws were bleeding from clawing at everything he saw.

"Look Tareesh. *sniff* You don't get it. She's all I've ever had. *sniff* I've never been apart from her. Never. And now she's all alone, scared out of her mind! And they're going to rape her." He turned wildly to face Tareesh. "We're killin em all tomorrow! I don't care if we die! I'm gonna rip his head off!" He slumped to the floor. "I don't know what to do."

"And that's why I'm here." Tareesh put a hoove on Simba's shoulder. "Everything always seems to work out. Love will always prevail."

Simba looked up and echoed his advice. "Love will always prevail."

"And love prevails always."

Simba stared at the wall. "Love prevails always."

His eyelids slowly closed, and nightmares filled his mind.


	14. The Final Battle

**Chapter 14: The Final Battle**

Nala didn't want to open her eyes. She knew what lay beyond her eyelids: a terrible sight. A sight that she could only imagine to be worse than anything she had ever seen. But she needed to stop imagining such things. It wasn't healthy to imagine one's own mother, rotting to death, covered in flies; the flies that she heard buzzing throughout the den; the flies right next to her, hovering over her mother's body. She whined.

How could they do that? What must have gone through their minds, to convince themselves that it was a good idea to leave the bodies of their victims in the den? She could never comprehend evil. And that's exactly what she was a victim of.

Evil.

Evil was why she lay in terror, crying her eyes out, in that hell-hole. Evil was why her mother was dead, why her whole Pride was dead, why her mate was gone, why all happiness seemed so distant, so impossible to reach, to possess, to even imagine. And it was all caused by the evil within her father. Her own father!

"ROOOOOAAARRR!"

Her entire life had been filled with misfortune, but one thing masked it all. One thing held her together. One thing put her above every animal out there.

Love…

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"Hey Simba! Hey Simba! Hey Simba! Hey Simba!"

"What what what what..."

Nala giggled. "Wake up silly. Guess what?"

Simba eyed his friend, who has jumping up and down with excitement. He replied groggily, "What?"

"Noooooo. You have to guess."

Simba sighed. "Hmmm." The cub opposite him looked ready to explode. He smiled, "You found another flower to talk to?"

The smile on Nala's face turned into an expression of shock. Then she sat down. Embarrassed, she replied to the floor, "No." Apparently Simba had caught her the previous day, talking to the flower that she frequently confided in.

Simba had made a huge mistake. He leaned forward towards Nala. "I'm sorry Nala. That was mean."

She kept her head facing the floor, but brought her eyes up to meet his. She had no idea how cute she looked at that moment, but it was definitely enough to make Simba gasp. Nala replied, "It's ok."

Simba attempted to reverse his actions. "You want to know something about me?" He waited, but received no response. "I have a pet rock that I talk to a lot. It knows all my secrets."

Nala smiled again. "Really?"

"Yeah, really. It's kind of dumb."

She scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. "Well what secrets would you have to tell a rock? I know everything about you."

"Well, what secrets do you tell the flower?"

The light-furred cub opened her mouth to reply, but then closed it, and laughed.

Simba teased his friend. "Nala's got a secret!"

"Shut up! So do you!" She had pounced on his paw to keep him from embarrassing her any more. Ironically, the action just embarrassed them both as they noticed that their paws were touching. Nala quickly relinquished the hold. "Anyway, back to my original reason for waking you up, I need to tell you the news."

"The anticipation is killing me."

Nala punched Simba for his sarcasm. "I'm... Going... To have..." She stopped and smiled. She was obviously waiting to elicit an emotion from Simba.

Simba looked at her, annoyed.

"A little sister!"

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The memory shot through Nala like an arrow. She had forgotten about her proposed little sister. How could she have forgotten? It must have been because everything from her past was masked by the death of her mother. Her new sister who didn't even have a name: completely forgotten. She almost vomited in agony for her negligence.

She whined. She wanted to die.

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"Heh heh. Look what we got here."

"Didja hear that roar? She's a feisty one!"

Nala realized that she had no control over her senses at the moment. The smell of the den overcame all else, and she would never open her eyes to what she knew surrounded her. "Who are you? Go away!"

"Ooh hoo hoOo! She wants us leave."

"Well I don't think she has any power over that, does she?"

"I swear, if you even touch me, I will claw your face apart!" At this point, she couldn't even tell where her visitors were coming from. All noise echoed throughout the den. "Don't do it!" Her eyes begun to water, she couldn't accept the inevitable.

"Don't worry. We plan on doing much more than touch you." The pair of hyenas laughed maniacally.

One of the hyenas jumped on top of her and pinned her to the ground. Surprisingly, she couldn't throw him off. As effortless as such an action was during previous battles, she was too incredibly weak. "Noooo!" Her shriek could be heard for miles.

"Stop!"

The hyenas' advances ceased and they slowly made their way to the booming voice. "Leave her for me."

Nala's sobs could be heard over the hyenas' retreating grumbles.

The familiar voice of her father filled Nala's ears. "Nala, Nala, Nala... That was quite a trick you tried to play during our little fiasco. It's a shame I have Karkass, huh? He knew exactly what you were going to do." Scar laughed at her misery.

Nala spoke to the ground through clenched teeth, "Go away..."

"I'm sorry, what was that? One more time please, sweet, sweet, Nala."

"GO AWAY! I hate you!" She spat in her father's face as her words rang throughout the den. Her eyes had opened on accident and she saw the silhouette of a lion carcass. She immediately closed her eyes and hid her face, sobbing.

"Oh," Scar circled his daughter, "do those bother you?"

Nala heard the smash and resounding echo of a bone as it collided with the wall, at the mercy of Scar's playful mood. "You should thank me. I saved you from a rather undesirable situation a second ago." He sighed. "I'm sure Simba would have been angry, too. In fact," his voice rose excitedly, "I bet he's seething with anger right now. Oh, what will he do without his precious... Little... Nala?" Upon his last word, he brought a claw to Nala's chin and lifted it up. Nala sent her paw flying towards her father's face and dug her claws deep into the side of his head, opening up the wound that now took the place of his ear. Screaming in pain, Scar stepped back and growled. "You have no right-"

"YOU have no right! Pride Rock belongs to Simba!" Nala felt her confidence come back as she opened her eyes and began to step towards Scar, forcing him to retreat back to the entrance of the den. "And you know what? He'll be back! I have no doubt in my mind that he will kill you, and all you're hyenas! You're stuck here! You have nowhere to go! You will die!"

"Stay back!" Scar bounded out of the den, and Nala's snarling face followed him. "Stop her!"

A multitude of hyenas landed on Nala's back and held her down. She fought and tore at them, but she was in no condition to fight. The hyenas forced her back into the den and returned to the entrance. Scar commanded the hyenas to stay and guard his prisoner as he began to slink away. "But sir, why don't we just kill her?"

The tyrant slowly turned around and smiled. "It's a little thing I like to call mental warfare. I'm sure Simba won't feel as strong when his mate is murdered right before his eyes."

Nala's eyes were shut tight again, but they couldn't stop the steady stream of rage filled tears. "Simba. Where are you? You know I hate the dark..."

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The king of the Pridelands was no longer playful and hesitant. He now embodied the meaning of stoicism. Explanations and speeches were a thing of the past. The Pride adjusted to his curt manor and quick speech. They did as they were told, not out of fear, but because of the respect they had gained for their unstoppable leader. Simba stood at the front of The Cave, with all manner of grim-faced warmongers behind him. The loss of the beautiful queen was not Simba's sole burden; every Pridelander had a place in their heart for her, leaving a hole, filled with a hatred for their oppressor: Scar.

He lifted his paw, and pointed it in the direction of Pride Rock, and the whole company slowly marched forward. No songs were sung, no words were said. The only sound was that of their paws and hooves, and the ripple of Simba's mane in the wind.

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Scar sat at the top of pride rock, watching the sun rise over his beautiful land. His... Beautiful... Land. The evil lion smiled. So long had he waited for this land. And soon, very soon, he would have nothing to worry about, because he DID worry about Simba. Although The Pride was small, it posed a threat to Scar's peaceful life. Once they were all dead, or enslaved, he could enjoy watching the sun rise. And without looking at the horizon every few seconds to see if his nephew appeared.

And Scar knew he would show. The intense connection between Simba and Nala assured that. The thought of their relationship brought disturbing feelings to Scar, remembering his past with Sarafina. He shuddered and forced himself to think about the upcoming battle.

He looked down upon Pride Rock, at the hyenas patrolling the outskirts of his domain. They were ready. And Karkass was somewhere, devising genius strategies with his generals. And Scar had to do nothing, absolutely nothing. He laughed. How could Mufasa be so stupid as to believe that he could trust other animals? Now, Pride Rock teamed with sentries and patrol. This was the way to rule a kingdom: bribes and bodyguards.

The dark-maned lion laid his head on his paws and sighed. Today would be fun.

"Sir, Talot here to report." Scar spun around at the startling arrival of the youth hyena.

He collected himself and responded, "Oh, good." He had forgotten he had sent for Talca's son.

Talot had grown to like the new regime under Scar. His natural strength served him well among his peers. He had risen among the ranks to one of the best. The day that he was assigned to Karkass's army was the best day of his life. He looked up to Karkass as more of a father than his own, especially since his own father was generally disliked by the entire community, and was never at home because he left to help the enemy all the time.

Talot's thought process was broken by Scar's kind voice, "So, Talot. I hear you've become quite a warrior."

"Oh yes. I've learned so many things from Karkass. I can't wait to kill more Pridelanders."

"Good, because I need you to do some killing for me, but you're going to have to be stealthy. Can you kill quietly?"

Talot nodded enthusiastically. "Of course! Just tell me who I need to kill and consider the deed done."

Scar smiled evilly. "Your father."

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Simba froze when he saw the shape of a hyena bounding over the horizon. He relaxed when he recognized it as Talca, with an unfamiliar hyena tagging along behind him.

Talca bowed upon reaching Simba. "Sire. This is my wife Rarlta." The spy motioned to the hyena at his side. "We came out of fear for our safety. I assume you're heading to battle."

Simba never looked at the hyena, but turned his head back to point towards Tareesh. Talca understood and ambled back to the antelope leader.

"Welcome, Talca. Who's this?"

"My wife, Rarlta."

The female hyena bowed. "Pleased to meet you."

Talca spoke his concerns to Tareesh. "We were forced to leave because our son was summoned by Scar, so we feared for our safety."

The antelope looked empathetically into Tacla's eyes. "Your own son?"

The hyena nodded with his head down. "Scar's taken both my sons now and I'm not about to let him take my wife. Anyways, I never received word that we were attacking so soon."

"Simba's angry. It's rash, but The Pride follows his orders." Tareesh sighed, "But who knows, perhaps today we were meant to attack. But I'm worried."

"Yes. We can only hope."

"And as for your son?"

"He's chosen his own fate." Talca looked steadily forward. Tareesh frowned and said no more, and neither did any other animal.

All that passed between the Pridelanders was a rush of adrenaline as the tip of Pride Rock rose above the horizon, with a small black dot sitting atop it.

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

A frightened Talot made his way back up to the tyrant. "Uhh, sir."

"Is it finished?" the dark-maned lion didn't even turn around. He kept his steady gaze on the horizon.

"My father is... gone. He's nowhere to be found."

Scar maintained his position and countenance. He smiled as Simba appeared over the horizon. "You're lucky I'm in a good mood today." The tyrant turned around quickly. "Karkass!"

The all-important hyena slowly made his way up to Scar. "I smell him, the red-maned one."

"I want him dead, Karkass. Find whatever means possible to make that happen. If you cut off the head of the snake, the rest dies."

Karkass bowed. "Sir."

Scar held his gaze upon the approaching Pridelanders. "Talot, join the ranks. I'll stay up here and watch."

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Simba slowed his pace to fall back in line with Tareesh. "I'll need rhinos to break me into the horde. They will take me to the den. The rest of The Pride will need to break through Scar's defense and form a wall around Pride Rock. At that point, it will be ours. No matter what happens, don't break the attack. I intend for this to be the last battle."

"Simba…"

"This is my choice. The Pride is yours to command, Tareesh."

"It never was."

"It is for the course of this battle."

The antelope gave in. "It's your call captain." Then he turned around, "ALL OF YOU! FORM RANKS! ZERU WILL LEAD IN FROM THE LEFT! I WILL LEAD IN FROM THE RIGHT! EIGHT RHINOS, UP HERE NOW!"

Simba smiled, "See? You were born for it."

Tareesh punched him with a hoove, "There's a smile! Now go get yourself killed, you crazy lovebird."

Simba returned the punch and made his way to the gathering of rhinos. "You all will be by barrier, we make a straight shot for the den, no stopping. If one falls, tighten the circle. Am I clear?"

The eight rhinos nodded in unison.

The lion's muscles tensed up as he crouched into a position ready for sprinting. "Here I come, Nala."

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Scar watched as the Pridelanders dashed in for the kill. His eyes widened as he noticed a small circle of rhinos acting as armor for Simba at the front of the charge. All he had to do was sit back and watch.

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Adrenaline masked all of Simba's senses as the head rhino collided with the oncoming hyenas. Dust filled his vision, and his legs moved in a steady rhythm without command. With tears in his eyes, his mind glossed over and he felt the ground pound at his heart with every thud of his legs. And then the rhino hit him.

As his senses poured back in, Simba rolled out from underneath the rhino's limp body and leapt atop it. The small gray blob of rhinos that used to be his protection disappeared into the dust.

Grabbing the first hyena to his left, Simba swiped his claws across its throat and jumped off of the rhino onto the bloodied ground. Biting the legs of another hyena he threw him onto one behind him. Blood spilled across his fur as he slowly made his way forward. One hyena after another died at his paws in the name of his love.

His paw grasped air as he burst into a peculiar circle of nothingness, and his eyes met the stare of a certain hyena; a hyena missing a patch of fur, right where Sarabi had taken it from him.

"YOU!"

Simba reached for the hyena but he disappeared into the dust in retreat. Simba growled as he collided with a wall of stone. He had reached Pride Rock!

Following the wall, and occasionally killing hyenas who came in contact with him, he eventually found a rock short enough to leap onto, and then another. He slowly ascended the rocks until he came to a ledge. Looking behind him, he saw clearly the field of dust that obscured the battle. From where he was, it seemed that The Pride was gradually gaining distance. He smiled.

Recognizing the path that led to the den and the ceremonial ramp of Pride Rock, Simba quickly found the way around his home.

The king stopped dead in his tracks, as about one hundred hyenas came into view, and they were all in front of the den. He circled back behind a wall, out of view of the hyenas. Luckily, they hadn't seen him.

It was obvious now that Nala was hidden in the den, but that many hyenas would be impossible to overcome; but not if his mate was by his side. He smiled. This was what it all boiled down to; this moment. He dug his claws into the dirt, and felt the ground beneath his paws, just as his father had taught him during their pouncing lessons. Simba looked up into the sky. "This is it, Dad."

The hyenas all yelped as a huge lion bounded out from behind a wall, landing on five of them and killing them instantly. He then spun around and slashed out at a few more, taking advantage of their momentary shock. Then the hyenas started attacking. They dug their claws into him, but he didn't care. He continued to spill the blood of his enemies. Each drop brought him closer to his mate. His heart pounded with each swipe of his claws. Then his vision was filled with yellow.

Pinned by Nala, Simba quickly returned her affection; but they both knew their lives were at danger, so they jumped into an upright position and began fighting for their freedom.

As the dust settled, the entire group of hyenas lay dead on the floor. Simba smiled, "Fighting with you is so much more fun than fighting alone."

Once again, the king found himself on the floor, with Nala licking his face, and her tears wetting his mane.

"You idiot! You know how long I was in there? And it was terrible! Why couldn't you come sooner? You lazy jerk!" And then she collapsed on him, and closed her eyes.

Simba laughed. "I love you, too."

His mate sobbed and brought her head up to look into his eyes, "Promise you'll never leave me again."

"I promise."

The couple, after some time, rose and looked out over the battle from the ceremonial ramp. Simba commented excitedly, "Well it looks like Tareesh knows what he's doing. They've completely sectioned off Pride Rock, now all that Scar's army can do is run away and never come back. It's a shame though, I wanted to meet my mother's killer."

Just as Simba finished his last syllable, a hyena came skidding around the corner of the den yelling, "Scar! They've taken Pride Ro-", and stopped. Bewildered, the hyena stared at the lion couple in shock.

Simba turned around and smiled, "Well that's fortunate."

The hyena regained control and sped off up the trail towards the top of Pride Rock. The two lions followed him.

Upon reaching the top, Simba and Nala found Karkass and Scar, the latter two looking mortified. The king and queen growled and jumped toward their respective murderers. Simba tackled Karkass and slashed him across the face as Nala crashed into Scar and sent both of them rolling down the front of Pride Rock. Simba yelled, "No!", as his mate tumbled off the edge, and Karkass took advantage of the moment to throw Simba off of himself.

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Nala and Scar separated as they continued to fall. They both came to a halt as they landed on the plateau outside of the den. In pain, Scar came to his feet first and bounded into the den in retreat. Nala groaned as she realized she would have to follow him in there, and she made her way to the entrance. She couldn't see him in the darkness, but she could hear his voice bouncing off the walls, "Well, Nala. Here we are again."

"I'll rip you apart Scar, for everything you've done."

"Well," Scar laughed, "You'll have to come in here to do so."

Nala apprehensively placed a paw into the den. Not only was it dark in there, but her mother's dead body was also somewhere. But for every second that she waited, Scar's eyes became more accustomed to the dark. She had to face her fears, and this time Simba wasn't around to comfort her. Her vengeful growl filled the den, and she leapt into the darkness.

As soon as her paws alighted on the ground, Scar threw himself at her, grabbed her back from the air, and flipped her onto the ground. Before Nala could rise, Scar came at her again and slashed her face. Nala roared, and her adrenaline rose because the slash across her face reminded her of what her father had done. He had killed Sarafina.

Nala rolled over and bowled into where she thought Scar was, but he had moved. Falling over, she was leapt onto again by Scar, and he held her down. "This seems familiar." He smiled.

Nala still could not see anything, but she growled once more in Scar's face.

"This is just how I killed your mother."

Nala struggled a paw free and kicked him off of herself. As she made her way back out of the den and into the light, Scar jumped on top of her again, but she was ready this time, and she flipped him back over just as she had done to Simba many times.

Now the tables had turned. Nala was pinning Scar to the ground, and they were out in the light. Scar blinked as the sun hit his eyes. He could do nothing to overpower his daughter. He laughed, "You know Nala, I have a little secret."

The lioness's eyes narrowed, "I know you're my father."

"Oh," Scar responded shakily.

"And I don't care that you're my father, because you're not my father. You don't deserve to be my father! You deserve to die!"

Scar pleaded, "No, Nala! Please!"

Unable to contain her rage any longer, Nala began ripping Scar's face apart with her claws.

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Karkass tried to retreat back to the trail to descend Pride Rock, but Simba regained his footing and leapt at the hyena. The king was only able to grab onto Karkass's backside, so Karkass nipped at his attacker's paws and freed himself. The hyena then jumped at Simba and pushed him back towards the edge. The lion retaliated similarly, but was able to knock Karkass of the edge. Karkass dug his claws into the rock, and launched himself back up on top of Simba.

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Meanwhile, Talca found Tareesh and addressed him, "Sir, we've secured all of Pride Rock."

The antelope leader smiled, "Good, now find Simba and see if he's okay."

"Yes sir."

Talca found his way up Pride Rock, but was halted by a familiar voice before he had found Simba.

"Hello, father."

Talca turned around to see the face of his son, grinning evilly.

"Talot, I know what you were ordered to do, but it is not a good idea."

"Why not?"

"The Pridelanders have won, you'll only be looked down upon for your actions now."

"I don't care! It was an order given to me directly by Scar! I can't ignore such an order!"

"Talot, Scar is dead."

Talot clawed at the dirt, "That's impossible!"

"It's true Talot."

The youth hyena growled.

Talca sighed, "Why are you doing this?"

"Because you're nothing! I was accepted by everyone once I joined the army! I wasn't looked at as your son anymore!", he was in tears, "I wasn't' dirt!"

"You're not dirt, Talot. You're my son, and I love you. You are not dirt."

"But YOU are!"

"Talot, I fought for what I believed in. All you're doing is fighting for what others believe in."  
"Whatever!"

"Son, if you come with me, you'll be looked on as a hero."

Talot couldn't bear the indecision, so he did only what he knew how to do. He sprinted toward his father, "DIE!"

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Nala's tears cascaded onto Scar's bloodied face. What had she done? She collapsed onto her father, and sobbed loudly.

The pain was unbearable for Scar, so his consciousness drifted away.

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

"Look at the black-mane."

"I know. He's so weird."

"I wonder where he came from."

Taka slunk along as his fellow cubs whispered amongst themselves. Why did they whisper anyway? He could still hear them…

The outcast lion cub made his way to a spot away from all the other cubs and lay down. Every day he had to deal with the pain of being the only black-mane. And on top of that, he was Mufasa's little brother. He would always live in the shadow of Mufasa, the future king. But one day, one day Taka would get his paid dues. One day he would exact revenge on all those jerks.

"Sarafina! What are doing?"

"Shut up Sarabi. I just want to meet him." The light-furred female cub made her way over to Taka. "Hi, I'm Sarafina."

Taka lifted his head, but kept his eyes to the ground. "Why are you here? To get a better look at me?"

"Well, I guess. But not on the outside, I want to know what's on the inside."

Taka looked up and saw Sarafina smiling at him, wagging her tail. He smiled. "Uhh, ok"

"Yay!" Sarafina looked around. "Let's go somewhere a little less loud."

"Ok."

The pair walked together out of view of everyone.

"So, I hear you're Ahadi's son."

Taka sighed, "Yup."

"That's pretty cool. So you're like a prince, right?"

"Sure, but I'll never be King."

Sarafina laid down, "Pshh, whatever. What does that mean anyway? It just means you have more things to worry about."

Taka's frown lightened.

The female cub changed the subject, "I noticed you hang out with hyenas a lot. Why do you do that?"

"Because none of the other cubs want to hang out with me."

Sarafina frowned. "Well… Well, I do. I'm bored of all of them anyway."

The dark-maned cub stared at the ground and sighed, "Why would you want to hang out with me?"

Sarafina shifted uneasily. "Well… I think you're mane is kinda cute."

Surprised, Taka's head shot up and their eyes met. Sarafina smiled and Taka blushed.

Sarafina turned her body and looked at him with her heard turned. Then she motioned towards the outlands. "Why don't you introduce me to your hyena friends?"

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

Simba and Karkass panted heavily as they stood at opposite ends of the peak of Pride Rock. The sun was beginning to set, and blood blurred both their vision. The combination cast a red fiery glow on their surroundings. Simba now understood why this particular hyena was at the top of the heap. He was one fearsome opponent. What he lacked in girth, he made up for in speed. Luckily, Simba had managed to not fall of the edge, but Karkass hadn't fallen either. The lion was the first to speak, "Why do you do what you do?"

The genius hyena laughed, "Why do I do… what I do?" He began walking counterclockwise, and Simba followed suit. "It's all perspective Simba, you see, from where I'm standing… it looks like you've taken MY home."

The king growled, "You know that's not true."

"Is it not? Is it not?" Karkass's face flashed into an angry snarl as he continued, "You're father may have been an amazing king, to all of you Pridelanders… but us hyenas were left out. We were always left out because of our past, our ancestors. And we could do nothing to change that, could we?" The hyena laughed again, "But Mufasa wouldn't hear any of our complaints. He wasn't a risk taker. And what was the result? Us hyenas were hungry, always hungry. My parents died too, Simba. You're not alone."

Simba felt sympathy for this hyena, but he couldn't tame the anger that he had felt for him his entire life. Karkass continued, "And why do I do what I do? Because Scar fathered me, more or less. And because he claimed a land that we should have an equal share in. Ahadi had two sons, one who played things safe, and one who ventured out into the unknown, and felt pity for the forgotten. I do what I do because I owe Scar, we all do, and because I hated your father. I'm glad I killed your mother, Simba."

The king began to feel the adrenaline in his veins, and he growled once more. Karkass laughed, "And Simba, it would be wonderful if we could all live together in harmony, but Mufasa made that impossible. He created two sides, and we've been deemed the evil ones. It's fate that we must kill each other. There's no other way."

"Then you die now!" Simba leapt at Karkass, but stopped short as the hyena did not move.

"Simba, I've paid my dues to Scar." His words were barely audible, "All I can ask… is that you do not banish the hyenas into the outlands again…" And with that, the leader of the hyenas pushed himself off of the edge of Pride Rock, and fell to his death.

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

"Isn't she adorable, Taka?"

The dark-maned lion responded, "I suppose."

Sarafina snorted, "You're funny." The new mother tickled her cub's nose with her paw.

"What should we name her, Taka?"

"I liked the first name you came up with. Nala."

Sarafina smiled at her cub. "Yeah. I liked that one, too. Hello Nala. Welcome to the Pridelands."

Taka snorted.

"Oh come on, Taka. Don't be so jealous. Here, why don't you hold her?"

"I'll be outside." The dark-maned turned and left his mate and daughter alone. Sarafina frowned, but looked back down at her new cub and smiled.

Sarafina was the only one Taka had. And now she was stolen from him, by a stupid cub. He had to do something with this anger…

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

"Nala, kill me."

The queen lifted her head from her father's chest, looking bewildered, "What?"

Scar lifted his head, and managed a little smile. "You look just like her."

"Dad." The word felt weird in her throat. "Dad, what are you saying?"

"I've done only terrible things... I deserve to be gone from you… so I don't cause you any more pain."

"No, Dad, please." Nala's tears began a fresh stream. "I can't… I can't kill you. You're my daddy."

TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION

The hyena youth looked confused, sitting in front of his father. "Why don't you move?"

"Son, if killing me will bring you peace, then I won't stop you." Talca smiled. "But I beg you to think differently. Come back with me and your mother. We will all live in the Pridelands, and we'll never be hungry."

Talot looked to the ground, then to his father. Then he stepped back. "I… I don't know what to do."

"Just trust me, Talot. Trust me."

Both of the hyenas were startled by a loud cheer from the opposing hyenas. They had broken through The Pride's defenses! They both stood where they were, along the path to the den, and started backing up as they felt the ground shake.

"Grab Scar, and let's get out of here!" The voice was Zeru the Sly's.

As the blind hyena came around the corner, with an antelope horn in his grasp, he laughed maniacally. Talot jumped over his father and protected his body from the oncoming wave of hyenas. The hyenas jumped on Talot's back, breaking open old scars from his brutal training, but the hyena stayed strong, and kept his father alive.

Once the hyenas had reached the den, Zeru ordered them to carry Scar and Nala, and to follow him to a new life, far away, to a place that Zazu had told him about.

Simba came charging down the trail from the top of Pride Rock and jumped into the huge mass of hyenas, killing many, but to no avail. Eventually, the herd of hyenas had broken through the unorganized mass of The Pride's army, and taken Scar and Nala past the horizon, with Simba hard on their heels.


	15. The Sunset

**Chapter 15: The Sunset**

FLASHBACK (SIMBA):

"Well, we're here." The lion cub prince was panting because of the long trek he and his best friend had just taken. Of course, his friend, Nala, was keeping her composure. He grumbled to himself.  
Nala gasped, "Simba, I don't think I've ever seen something so amazing."  
"What are you talking about?" The prince, Simba, looked at his friend slightly bewildered, "We see the sunset every night." He added sarcastically, "Maybe you haven't noticed?"  
The cream colored female cub kept her eyes on the slowly setting sun, with its bright orange hue lighting up The Pridelands, as if the whole world were on fire. It filled her with an unusual feeling of warmth, and a burning desire for something. "No, it's… it's different this time…"  
Simba turned his gaze away from his friend to the horizon, "Hmm, whatever you say."

They laid there for awhile, watching the great big orb become a semi-circle, and Simba began to feel the feeling that Nala was talking about. It WAS different this time. But why? It was just the sun, it was there every day, turning beautiful colors for some reason or another. Something to do with a trouble-making elephant who wanted to eat the sun. Something like that… Simba smiled as he thought of all the stories that Rafiki told to the cubs. The monkey was crazy, Simba was sure of it.

As he mind drifted back to the present, he was reminded of the feeling inside of him. That deep, burning feeling. It hurt, really. With his mind, he searched around his body and found that his heart was pounding fiercely against his chest. It made sense that that would hurt. But why was it pounding so hard?

This was about the time in a sunset where Nala would get sleepy, but this time she wasn't. And she knew what it was. It was because SIMBA had thought up this whole idea. The plan was pretty complex. She had to hand it to him, he was a smart lion. And he was cute too. But that wasn't the point! The plan involved a lot of lying, which she wasn't too fond of, but she would let it slide for Simba. But the reason she was enjoying herself so much was because this was almost… a date. At least she considered it to be. She looked over at Simba and realized she was smiling too much, so she held a straight face as her friend returned the glance.  
Simba jumped. "What?"  
Nala couldn't stop herself from giggling and stifled her face in her paws.  
Simba raised an eyebrow and smiled, "Why are you laughing?"  
The female cub placed her chin on her crossed paws, looking back at the sunset, and responded while smiling and trying so hard not to laugh out of pure happiness, "I don't know."  
The prince laughed, "Hah, you're cute."

Both the lion cubs were startled at the comment. He hadn't really meant to say it, but it was the truth, so he relaxed a bit and decided not to worry about it. Nala, on the other hand, was jumping all over… on the inside. On the outside, she only showed her excitement through her eyes, which were wide open. And she could only respond with, "Erm, Simba? I'm cold."  
Simba eyed her again in confusion. "Are you kidding me? I'm melting over here!"  
"No, I'm serious."  
"I, uhh, okay."

Things were getting unmanageable fast. Simba had no idea what to do, but the only thing that seemed to make sense was to cuddle up next to her, to keep her warm. After he had done so, both of their hearts were pounding with a ferocity they had never felt before, but it no longer hurt. They weren't really focused on their hearts at the moment.

The tension slowly dissipated, and all that remained were two lion cubs, side by side, watching the last sliver of the sun disappear over the horizon. Without needing to communicate, the couple knew that they should lie here all night. As the world plunged into darkness, Nala couldn't help herself, "Simba?"  
"Yeah?"  
The female cub paused, "I…" Another pause, "I, uhh…" She gave up. "I'm not cold anymore."

BACK TO PRESENT:

The memory ended and Simba kept running. The sun was setting, which consequently had led to him thinking of his and Nala's first date. The memory only brought more pain as he continued to realize the inevitable: She wasn't coming back…

The hyenas had split up into two separate groups to lose the lion king. He had followed the wrong group, and so he ran to the other group. Upon reaching them, he noticed that they were eating lion flesh. Luckily, he had contained his rage, because if he had attacked them, he would have surely died, too. But at this moment, he thought that maybe that wouldn't have been such a bad thing.

Pride Rock peaked over the horizon, and he continued running, tears staining his mane.

Why do bad things keep happening to him? Why was he destined for such a horrible life? Right when everything seemed to be going so well, his world crashed. That seemed to happen too often to him. He had only been with her for a number of seconds before they were separated again… And now she's gone forever.

Simba ran past Talot, who was proudly telling the king that "the den was cleaned out and the bodies have been buried and we're waiting for…" The voice of the converted hyena died in the wind as Simba sprinted up Pride Rock.

When the king arrived at the den, Talca jumped, "Simba! You're back! We need… Where's, uh, where's…" Again, Simba ignored the hyena and dashed into the den, slamming himself against the back wall. "NOOOOO! NOOO!" He roared and slunk to the floor and stared at the sunset through the opening of the den. The sunset was coming to a close.

Simba looked at his paws, and then back at the sunset. The death of his mate was too much to bear. They had done everything together. He couldn't stand being without her for one day, but for the rest of his life? Impossible! There was only one option…

The lion came bounding out of the den and made his way to the top of Pride Rock. Talca had told everyone to leave the king alone for now, and that they would worry about the funerals of Simba's parents later.

Simba arrived at the highest point of Pride Rock. He remembered how Nala had fallen off of this with Scar during the battle, and how Karkass had taken his own life by pushing himself off of the ledge. The king laid down, with his paws dangling off the ledge, and watched the sun set through blurry eyes. Dark thoughts came across his mind.

He should have ripped those hyenas apart. That's what they did to Nala. He should have exacted revenge. He should have died to avenge his mate. He wanted so badly to destroy every hyena out there. And Scar… His hatred for Scar bubbled to a degree it never had before. The dark-maned lion had taken Simba's parents, but now he had taken Simba's mate. And he had killed his own daughter! It was sick! All of this was just sick!

Simba toyed with his paws, flipping them up and down over the ledge. Now Nala was up there in the sky. Once the sun had set, he'd surely see her star along with Mufasa's, Sarabi's, and Sarafina's. And there was only one way to reach her…

"No!" Simba had to blurt his objection out to prevent himself from jumping off the edge. He was now standing on all paws looking out over his kingdom, as the sun slowly set. As the sun continued to disappear, certain areas of his kingdom did too. He dangled a paw over the ledge again.

He had to do it! To be with her again! He could not go on living like this! What was he good for anyway? Without Nala, he would be the last lion, and he'd have no cubs to continue their species. This revelation reminded him of his daughter, also being eaten by hyenas…

Simba now cried openly because he couldn't stop himself. This was terrible. All of this was the worst feeling he had ever felt. He remembered the days before the attack, when he and Nala had played every day. They never worried about death and survival. Every day was a journey, and every day was worry-free. Hakuna Matata.

He lifted his head over the ledge and his tears fell all the way down to the ground near the den. He remembered the days when it was just him and Nala, escaping out into the world, to enjoy each other, and no one else. And he thought about when they were in their own little cave, and they comforted each other after their parents had died; those wonderful few days when no one else was in their world but themselves. And that was when they had their first kiss. Simba smiled. And he remembered the days when they were ruling The Pride, and no one was worried because Scar had no idea where they were. And he remembered the time that he and Nala had left on a date, and they had been married. His life had been amazing, he realized. But he would have none of that anymore, because his Nala was gone, his little blue-eyed friend who always beat him at everything, but who was always there when he needed her. He lived for her. And she was gone. He had no more reason to live. She really was his everything. And he hadn't fully realized it until this moment. She was amazing, and he was going to be with her once again. Of course this was the right choice. Pride Rock didn't even need him anymore. But Nala did. She always needed him, just as he needed her. They were one. He smiled as he realized that he would meet his daughter, Amani. Such a lovely name… Nala did a great job of picking it.

The smile never left the lion king's face as stood up again and dangled one paw over the ledge.

Her sapphire eyes. Her light fur. Her sweet voice, it had an edge to it that he loved. The way she would tilt her head when she was confused. The way her ears would move when she was curious. The way she always went out to play with him when they were cubs, even though she was scared to death of adventure. She was always so scared, but she kept it inside. To impress Simba. And Simba was impressed. He always been impressed. She was truly amazing. How could anything compare to her: complete bliss.

Then two paws left the floor.

Three paws.

Four.


	16. The Light

**Chapter 16: The Light (at the End of the Tunnel)**

Light. Lots of it. And the light was painful

The smell of strawberries became apparent to Simba as his senses regained control. And the worst sensation was the excruciating pain that arose in his head. This was the worst headache he had ever felt, and the bright lights did not help to soothe it. Luckily, the smell was pleasant. As long as he focused his attention on the strawberry aroma, the pain would diminish a bit.

At the moment, he couldn't see anything, the lights obscured his vision, and he could not hear anything, for reasons he assumed had something to do with the ever growing migraine that would not listen to his pleas for abatement.

But still the ever-present aroma of strawberries. It reminded him of-

NALA!

The pain in his head climaxed.

Thoughts of all that had happened to his cream-colored mate filled his mind. She had died. And worse, she had been eaten. The suffering was unbearable. Simba remembered how he had jumped off of the cliff. But, oddly, he remembered nothing of what happened afterward. Was he in heaven? This was the only possible explanation. It would explain the lights, the pain, and the-

Wait... The pain was diminishing, as well as the brightness of the lights, and the smell of strawberries grew stronger. Feeling seeped through the nerves on his belly, where a heavy weight was pressing down on him. The rapidly changing effects of his senses were confusing him. The reality that he was in heaven became less probable as the weight of gravity took hold, and he started to hear the hum of some melody. And the smell of strawberries reached into his consciousness every time he took a breath. He felt the warm air fill his lungs, and then leave from his being into the world that he was now sure he was still a part of. He wasn't dead. He was sure now. But then where was he, and how could he possibly be alive?

As the new senses overwhelmed Simba, he felt the need to investigate the pressure on his belly, and so he lifted his head, and opened his eyes. Large sapphire orbs filled his vision.

The orbs slowly closed and opened again, and a soft voice reached his eardrums, "Hello."  
"Nala?"  
The head to which the orbs belonged to bobbed up and down then remained firmly on the king's chest, and he noticed the smile that the queen wore. Simba blurted, "HOW?"  
"Shh!" The lioness laughed and put a paw over his muzzle. "This is our time; I don't want everybody running in to see if you're okay!" An unintelligible response came from under Nala's paw. She quietly laughed again, her tail wagging back and forth. She removed her paw and continued to stare into Simba's amber eyes.  
The lion king smiled and then asked in a whisper, "But how? How am I not dead?" He noticed that they were in the den of Pride Rock, and Nala was lying on his belly. No one else was present.  
Nala's eyes narrowed into a worried expression, "Oh, Simba, I ran as fast as I could. I saw you at the top of Pride Rock. I thought the worst, and yelled your name." She closed her eyes. "But you didn't respond. You just stood up there, testing the edge with your paw. So I sprinted up the pathway to the peak, and I was yelling your name the whole time! You never even looked back..." A tear rolled down her cheek. "And then you jumped... But I did too, and I grabbed onto you, and we both rolled down Pride Rock."

Simba noticed that both he and Nala were in poor condition, very poor condition. It seemed that they were always beat-up. "You... saved me?"  
The lioness opened her eyes, sniffed, and smiled. "Yes. Yes, I did. And I'm so glad I was there in time. They said that because I had taken half your beatings, you had a chance, but they weren't sure. I was so scared... but I stayed by you the whole time. And here you are, looking at me as if I'm some ghost." She snorted and smiled wider, feeling silly for doing so.  
"Oh Nala..." Simba nuzzled his mate. He looked down in shame. "I never heard you yell my name."  
Nala smiled as Simba wiped her tears away with his paw. She licked his paw as he pulled it back to its original position. "But I did... I did call your name." She laid her head to its side, using Simba's mane as a pillow.

The couple laid there for a while, amazed at the way events had turned out. Simba realized that it was Nala who smelled so strongly of strawberries. It had become normal for her to smell that way ever since he mentioned he had liked strawberries, back when they were carefree cubs. His heart warmed at the prospect of her thoughtfulness. The ache in his head had disappeared, but the cuts, bruises, and gashes all along his body stung as the air swept in from the mouth of the den. But that was nothing compared to the happiness he felt right now. He and his mate were safe, and their-

Simba bit his lip as he worried about the answer to the question he was about to ask. "What about Amani?"  
Nala's whiskers tickled her mate's belly as she smiled and answered, "She's fine. She was surrounded by our bodies as we fell. We never separated. I clung to you like a leech."  
"Hah, I believe it." He licked her in thanks.

Amani was safe... Simba smiled and his anxiety diminished. It struck him as meaningful that the unborn cub's parents had taken her blows to protect her. He would have to tell her the story some day, when he was a parent. Oh god. He was going to be a parent. The anxiety built up inside of him with a renewed vigor. How could he protect her from all the dangers of the world? Or... maybe he already has.

He wanted to confirm his hunch, "So Scar and the hyenas are gone?"  
Nala stiffened, "Yes."  
"Then Amani will have a safe world to grow up in. She'll never have to worry about a life like ours. She will never be hurt like we were." His mate smiled. "But Nala, what if a rogue comes. This could all happen again to Amani. How am I supposed to let her out of my sight, when I know what could happen to her?"  
The queen returned her gaze to Simba's eyes by pivoting her head. She raised an eyebrow. "You're beginning to sound like an over-protective parent."  
The king rolled his eyes. "I'm just saying-"  
Nala chuckled, "I know, I know." They licked each other and their tongues met.

"There's still one thing that confuses me," Simba said. Nala said nothing, prompting him to continue. Simba looked downward, "I saw the hyenas eating you..."  
"No." The lioness closed her eyes. "No, that was Scar."  
"Oh." Simba was confused as a single tear dripped from Nala's muzzle to his mane. "How did you escape?"

Nala's chest rose and fell against Simba's as she relayed the story of her father.

FLASHBACK (NALA):

She heard the roar of her beloved. It was a challenging roar, and a mournful one. She knew that Simba would follow.

The queen's tears rolled freely to the floor. Her father had just told her to kill him. Not long ago, she had hated Scar with every fiber of her being. Now, she had no idea what to believe. Her thoughts were in a foreign place. Such indecision had never pestered her like this; everything had always been so clear before. The answer had always laid in whatever kept her near Simba, and whatever protected Amani. She reasoned that currently, as her tired body was being carried by hyenas, there was nothing she could do. She could only wait and see what fate had in store for her.

But she needed to talk to her father. She needed to find out the whole story.

Simba's cries diminished as the hyenas ran faster and farther than his aching limbs could compete with. Nala's eyelids grew heavy with tears, and they slowly closed, taking her away from the hell that never seemed to end.

Upon waking, the lioness found herself curled up next to Scar's limp body. The hyenas had prepared a fire nearby over a hill, the smell of burnt brush reaching her nostrils. She lifted her head, and a sharp pain caused her to shiver, so she put her head back down.

She coughed, "Scar?"  
The dark-maned lion rolled over to face her, and winced as his muzzle hit the ground, causing his head to shake. He smiled. Nala noticed a difference in this smile than any other smile the evil lion had worn previously. This smile wasn't smug or sinister. It was slight, and his eyes angled to show a sincere feeling of remorse. Scar's words gave the expression tangible meaning, "Nala... Sweet, sweet Nala. I am sorry."  
Nala smiled in response. "Tell me about Mommy."  
Scar's eyes closed. "Hmm... Where to start? Well, she looked an awful lot like you." He smiled as he pictured her in his head. "Her smile was… it was different from all the others... It was real." His eyes opened. "You know what I mean?" The lioness didn't understand, but she nodded her head. Scar's eyes closed again as visions of his mate danced upon the insides of his eyelids. "And her voice. I don't know if they ever told you. But she had the most amazing voice. She would sing lullabies to you that would put the whole pride to sleep." He laughed, which caused him to cough before he continued. "It's true. It really is. Everyone loved her. And they always wondered why she had chosen me as a mate."

Nala soaked in every word that her father spoke. She had never heard of what her mother was like, and memories of Sarafina popped back into Nala's head as Scar told of his mate's every attribute. Nala thought that her father knew Sarafina better than she, herself, knew Simba. But that wasn't possible. She knew everything about Simba.

"And the way she looked at you. It made me so jealous." His face took on a mournful expression. "If only I knew at the time what a beautiful thing it was, and how beautiful you were. Oh, how I would have changed things..."  
He opened his eyes, "Nala, don't ever let go of Simba. Never, ever let go of him." The intensity of the statement left him coughing and tired. "Remember, Amani will only be an extension of your love." A tear found its way from his eye to the grass below. "I wish I could be there to see her grow up, and be her wise old grandfather." He chuckled then frowned again. "But it can never be."  
"Of course it can! You can come back with me!" Nala was up on her front paws now. "And Simba and I will rule over the Pridelands, and the hyenas will be gone! We never have to worry about them again!"  
"Shhh... Nala." He lifted his paw. "Quiet now."  
"But Scar-"  
"Taka." He smiled sweetly. "Call me Taka."  
"Taka..."  
"I will die Nala. I will die. Not because of your attack, which I deserved, by the way. I would hate to see you beat yourself up over that." Nala looked down at the floor. "No, I will die because it is what must happen. I cannot be here anymore. I am a poison, Nala."  
"No you're not!"  
"Shh... Yes I am. Zeru won't allow me to live. I pose as a threat to his supremacy. I know the ways of hyenas better than any other lion, and I know that must die."  
"Never! I'll fight them off!"  
"You cannot. They are coming now. Stay quiet and play dead if you wish to live. This is all I ask of you Nala. Promise me."  
"No."  
"Please promise me, Nala. If you do me this favor for me you will have honored me." Nala took one more worried breath and collapsed back onto the floor, a cloud of dust being the only sign that she stirred.

Several hyenas came over the hill and picked Scar's body up off of the ground and carried it back to the fire. Once they were out of sight, Nala rose and crawled to the peak of the hill, careful not to provoke any unwanted attention. She watched as the hyenas threw Scar's body onto the fire, their maniacal laughter rising up into the sky with the smoke. Tears fell from Nala's eyes as she cried in silent misery.

She returned to her previous spot behind the hill when she couldn't stand the sight of her father's last moments anymore. She laid on her back and looked into the night sky. As Scar's last dying screams diminished, Nala saw a star appear next to her mother's star, and she cried, but she wore a smile on her face.

Then she decided that she should return to Pride Rock, and she ran as fast as she could.

BACK TO PRESENT:

Nala had never lifted her heard off of Simba's chest during the telling of Scar's death. The king clung tightly to his mate's body, and they remained that way for some time. Simba whispered, "Nala, we would never," saying it as an oath.  
"No... I don't think we would."  
Simba closed his eyes, mouthing the antelope leader's wise words. He decided to tell them to Nala. "Tareesh said something to me back when we had been separated. He told me that love always prevails. He was right. Love prevailed with us, and love prevailed with Scar."  
"Yes, and Talot is back with us."  
Simba smiled. "Good."

Nala's head rose and she stared into Simba's eyes. "And I will love you forever."  
"Forever and ever."  
The two monarchs drifted into a sleep, not an eternal sleep, but a sleep long enough to prepare them for the coming of a new age, an age they would lead into existence. An age of peace, for their daughter. An age of Amani.


	17. Ufahamu

**Chapter 17: Ufahamu**

"So, how was your date with Ufahamu?"  
"Mom! It wasn't a date," the female cub rolled her eyes, "We were just exploring!"  
Nala chuckled as her daughter's cheeks flushed red. As the cub drew nearer, Nala pulled her into a warm embrace. "Well then how was that?"

Amani closed her eyes and visualized Ufahamu and herself sitting atop a large mound, talking. "Ufahamu found this hill that you could see the gorge from, so we decided to stay up there for awhile." Amani opened her eyes and looked out of the den towards the sun that was just beginning to set. She beamed. "But then he finally told me about his adventures with his Mom when they were outcasts! And they were incredible! He-"  
"Shh…" Nala put a paw to her daughter's muzzle. "That's his story to share."  
Amani thought back to the tears that flowed steadily down Ufahamu's muzzle as he told the story, and she understood what her mother meant.

Nala waited a bit and then asked, "Did this hill that you found have purple rocks on top of it?"  
Amani looked surprised, "Yeah!" She eyed her mother, "How did you know?"  
Nala smiled, "Because when your father and I were young, we also found that hill, and your father named it Purple Rock Hill." The queen's eyes glazed over as she remembered the days of her youth.  
"No way!" Amani laughed, "Well our name was _much_ better. I named the rocks Ahadi's Tears, and we both named the hill Teardrop Mountain, because the rocks were in the shape of tears."  
"That _is_ a better name," Nala said frowning, "And anyway, our names don't matter anymore. You're the new explorers of the Pridelands."

Nala nuzzled her daughter and smiled, "You're so beautiful, Amani."  
Amani looked at the floor and gave a half-hearted smile.  
Right then, Simba came into the den. Smiling, he called out, "Hello Amani."  
"Daddy!" The cub stayed where she was and waited for her father to approach her and nuzzle her.  
As Simba sat down, Nala asked him worriedly, "So how are the other animal kingdoms responding to your speech?"  
The king stretched and yawned. "Positively for the most part. Everyone seems to agree that the monarchy of the lions needs to end. Each faction has chosen a leader who will enforce the laws chosen by the populous. And we will all rule equally and be united as Pridelanders." He waved his paw. "I'm sure we'll have to come up with a system to keep each other in check, but that is for another day."

Simba then sighed, "And it seems the debate about the Circle of Life has come to a finish. Those at the bottom of the food chain stand strongly against it." He looked out towards the sky. "But I think it's for the better that we drop it. The factions are closer than ever, and many find it hard to eat their friends' children. And anyways," he smiled at Nala, "We've been eating grass for so long now, I've gotten used to it, and Amani has never even eaten meat!"  
"Yes," Nala sighed and nuzzled her mate, "So much to worry about." She smiled hopefully as she pulled away, "But I'm sure once this is all sorted out, you won't have to be away so much."  
"And we can spend time together again."  
Nala beamed and a tear trickled down her cheek. "I can't wait."

Simba licked Nala and turned to Amani, "And how was your day?"  
"It was great! I spent the whole day with Ufahamu."  
Simba smiled and then suddenly turned serious. Then he said, "Don't let go of him."  
Nala started. "Simba! She's just a cub."  
"I know," Simba sighed, "I just want her to know how amazing it is."  
Nala smiled into her mate's eyes. She sniffed. "Me too, but…" She shook her head and laughed. "We were so young."  
"And we were so in love."

Amani continued to watch her parents, enthralled by the intensity of their stares.  
Simba looked down at her. "Amani… when you find the one that makes you want to yell from the top of mountains, and fly into the clouds, and sing to the moon…" He stopped and shook his head.  
Nala continued, "When you find the one whose touch sends shivers down your spine, and whose warmth sets fire to the heart… you'll know. And when you know, you'll know what to do. I think that's what your father is trying to say."

Amani knew exactly what her parents meant. She nodded and closed her eyes. Tears were falling from her father's cheeks and her mother began to sniff. Amani rose and began to limp to the ceremonial ramp of Pride Rock, one leg at a time.

Simba and Nala watched as their daughter struggled to make her way to her destination, almost falling as she supported her weight on her only three legs.

But right as she began to fall, a dark-maned cub sped to her side, dropped a purple heart-shaped rock, propped her up, and continued to be her crutch until they were at the tip of the ramp. There, they laid down and watched the sunset, side by side. Amani's black-tipped tail flicked back and forth, as did Ufahamu's.

As the sun turned blood-red and nearly disappeared, Simba and Nala saw, in the silhouette of the sun, their daughter craning her neck and fitting it into position on Ufahamu's shoulder. Ufahamu in turn laid his head upon Amani's.

The king and queen snuck out of the den and made their way to the peak of Pride Rock. There they laid and watched the stars turn.

As Simba held his beloved in his arms, he chuckled as he remembered his thoughts the night his family had been murdered: "Why Me?" He then mouthed the same words to his father, but this time, the meaning differed quite a bit.

The king turned his head towards his mate, and she turned her head towards him, and Simba whispered, "I love you Nala"  
"I love you too, Simba."

**The End.**


End file.
